Category: Violence against citizens
Period: from 15 Aug 2025
Outcome: No one investigated (as of 18 Aug 2025)
After a gathering over police violence in Valjevo, citizens broke through a police cordon outside the SNS offices in Čačak on 15 August 2025, and police chief Draško Darijević allegedly punched a detained activist in the stomach while two officers held him. The Čačak Police Department opened a review of the use of force and denied that brass knuckles had been used. POKS filed a criminal complaint against the police chief on 18 August 2025.
On 15 August 2025, people gathered in Čačak to protest police violence in Valjevo. They marched through the town and stopped outside the SNS offices, where a police cordon was waiting for them. When the cordon was broken, one activist was detained.
The head of the Čačak Police Department, Draško Darijević, allegedly punched him in the stomach while two police officers were holding him. The activist says he had surrendered, was not resisting and did not expect the blow. He was taken to hospital for a medical examination.
The Čačak Police Department said that officers who had been attacked, the department head among them, used physical force and restraints against the person who broke through the cordon. It said it had opened proceedings to assess whether the use of coercive measures was justified.
It denied that “brass knuckles” were used: according to its statement, they were handcuffs. It also said that the prosecutor's office had stated that the detained man's conduct contained elements of the criminal offence of obstructing an official.
The local branches of the Democratic Party, the People's Movement of Serbia and Dveri, along with the citizens' group “Istina i čast”, called for the police chief to be dismissed or to resign. On 16 August, several hundred people from Čačak gathered outside the house where he lives, and the police set up a cordon.
On 18 August, POKS filed a criminal complaint against him.