Category: Violence against citizens
Period: from 21 Nov 2024
Outcome: Under investigation (as of 4 Aug 2025)
Pensioner Ilija Kostić (74) was detained on 21 November 2024 at a blockade of the court in Novi Sad. The next day he told the prosecutor that two plainclothes men had beaten him at the police station, including kneeing him in the testicles. His wife told Danas that one of his testicles was amputated because of the injuries. The Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Sremska Mitrovica ordered an investigation against two unidentified officers of the Novi Sad Police Department, but according to lawyer Srđan Kovačević, the identification failed because the officers did not show up, so the suspects have still not been named.
Ilija Kostić (74), a pensioner from Novi Sad, was detained on 21 November 2024 at a blockade of the court building for pepper-spraying a police officer in the cordon. He was ordered held for 48 hours.
The next day he told the prosecutor that two plainclothes men at the police station had punched him in the head, slapped him and kneed him in the testicles. His wife told Danas that one of his testicles was amputated because of the injuries.
The Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Sremska Mitrovica, to which the case was transferred from Novi Sad, ordered an investigation against two unidentified officers of the Novi Sad Police Department for ill-treatment and torture and for grievous bodily harm. The criminal complaint was filed by the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and lawyer Ivan Ninić.
According to Danas, some politicians accused Goran Radonjić, acting chief of the Novi Sad Police Department, of personally injuring Kostić, but he was never questioned over it. According to the prosecution, Radonjić has no procedural status in the case.
In May 2025 he was reassigned to a post at Police Headquarters in Belgrade; minister Ivica Dačić said this was not a dismissal.
By April 2025, 29 witnesses had been questioned, most of them police officers, and the Internal Control Sector gave the prosecution the names of the officers who had dealt with Kostić. The identification parade was repeatedly postponed because the suspected officers did not turn up, citing official duties. In August 2025 lawyer Srđan Kovačević said it had failed, and Kostić did not recognise anyone from photographs either.
According to Danas, by August 2026 no one had faced disciplinary or criminal proceedings. Meanwhile, the case against Kostić himself for attacking a police officer with pepper spray is going ahead, Insajder reports.