Tanja Drobnjak and the student outside the Faculty of Law

Category: Violence against citizens

Period: from 3 Jul 2025

Outcome: Under investigation (as of 9 Jun 2026)

On the night of 3 July 2025, outside the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, police officers pulled the hair of a Faculty of Dramatic Arts student and held a phone up to her face. Kreni-promeni named Tanja Drobnjak, a deputy in Marko Kričak's Security Unit, as responsible and filed a criminal complaint. The prosecutor filed an indictment, but chief prosecutor Ljubivoje Đorđević ordered a deferral of prosecution, and the prosecutor's objection was rejected, meaning a payment of at least 400,000 dinars would end the proceedings. Drobnjak has since been appointed adviser to SAJ commander Igor Žmirić.

Attack outside the Faculty of Law

On the night of 3 July 2025, outside the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, police officers pulled the hair of a Faculty of Dramatic Arts student and held a phone up to her face. On 9 July Kreni-promeni named Tanja Drobnjak, deputy to Marko Kričak in the Security Unit, and the next day filed a criminal complaint against her.

Another police officer can be seen in the footage; by June 2026 he had not been identified.

Indictment and deferred prosecution

A prosecutor at the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against Drobnjak. Chief Prosecutor Ljubivoje Đorđević then issued a binding instruction to apply deferred prosecution; the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights writes that the proceedings would be dropped on payment of at least 400,000 dinars. Nova, citing a source, reports that the indictment was not filed with the court even though it had already been issued.

Prosecutor's objection rejected

Drobnjak's lawyer says the defence asked for a deferred prosecution because the prosecution would not hear the police officers as witnesses, and that in her view there are no elements of a criminal offence. Prosecutor Smiljka Stojanović lodged an objection to the instruction on 10 June, and on 17 June the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office said the objection had been rejected and the instruction remained in force. It was reportedly rejected, following a substitution ruling, by the chief prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Smederevo.

The association of judges and prosecutors Defence of the Profession asked Supreme Public Prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac to order that the prosecution continue. The case was reportedly later settled with a plea agreement.

Adviser to the SAJ commander

In February 2026, the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office said that Drobnjak had been questioned as a suspect for ill-treatment and torture and that the case was at the evidence-gathering stage. At that time she was also appointed adviser to SAJ commander Igor Žmirić.

Commanders from the “Lustration File”

In July 2025, in its series Dosije Lustracija, the Kreni-promeni movement named the commanders it holds responsible for the violence outside the Law Faculty: Mirko Mijučić, commander of the Belgrade detachment of the Gendarmerie; Radoslav Repac, commander of the Police Brigade; Dejan Frković, assistant commander of the Gendarmerie; and Igor Žmirić, assistant commander of the JZO and an associate of Tanja Drobnjak.

In September 2025, Nova.rs reported that Žmirić was present when a female student was pulled by her hair and that he made no attempt to stop his subordinates. According to unofficial information obtained by that portal, Žmirić was arrested in November 2026 along with members of the JZO, partly over the police intervention at the Law Faculty. In a statement, the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office accuses them of torture in the Government garage, and on 6 November the First Basic Court ordered them held in detention.

Participants

Tanja Drobnjak: According to Kreni-promeni's complaint, she led the police officers who pulled a student's hair in order to unlock her phone with her face (responsible)
Ljubivoje Đorđević: According to Nova, he instructed the prosecutor to apply deferred prosecution instead of the indictment already filed against Drobnjak (responsible)
First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade: According to Nova, the chief prosecutor ordered deferred prosecution even though the indictment had already been filed, so it never reached the court (responsible)
Unit for the Protection of Certain Persons and Facilities (JZO), Interior Ministry: According to a criminal complaint by Kreni-promeni, the unit's deputy commander led the police officers who pulled a female student by the hair (responsible)
Belgrade Centre for Human Rights: Writes that with a payment of at least 400,000 dinars, deferred prosecution would have the proceedings dropped (oversight and the public)
Mirko Mijučić: According to Kreni-promeni, he commanded the Gendarmerie special group that beat students outside the Faculty of Law (responsible)
Radoslav Repac: According to Kreni-promeni, he led the police operation on Bulevar kralja Aleksandra when a number of students were injured (responsible)
Dejan Frković: According to the Kreni-promeni movement, he is one of those responsible for the beating of students outside the Faculty of Law (responsible)
Igor Žmirić: According to claims by the Kreni-promeni movement, he was among the police officers who harassed students outside the Faculty of Law (responsible)
Smiljka Stojanović: She objected to the instruction to defer the prosecution of Drobnjak, but her objection was rejected (investigation and courts)
Defence of the Profession: It asked the Supreme Public Prosecutor to order that the criminal prosecution of Drobnjak continue (oversight and the public)