Category: Violence against citizens
Period: 21 May 2023 – 13 May 2026
Outcome: Guilty verdict (as of 13 May 2026)
Igor Avramović, a member of the Belgrade Intervention Police Unit, killed Ervin Ćelahmetović in a café in Priboj on 21 May 2023, fled to Bosnia and Herzegovina and was arrested in Trebinje. The killing alarmed Bosniaks in Sandžak, and minister Bratislav Gašić said it had no religious or political connotation. The first-instance verdict for grievous bodily harm was overturned, so in the retrial Avramović was convicted of murder and sentenced to 13 years; the verdict has been final since 2026.
According to the indictment, on 21 May 2023, around midnight, Avramović approached Ervin Ćelahmetović, who was sitting at the bar, without provocation and struck him in the head. Ćelahmetović fell, lost consciousness and died two hours later in hospital in Priboj. Police said that Avramović, a member of the Police Intervention Unit in Belgrade, struck the blows while off duty.
At trial, he argued in his defence that Ćelahmetović had been drunk, was causing a disturbance and had sworn at him. According to Nova, one witness told investigators that Ćelahmetović gave him no answer, and then Avramović hit him.
Avramović fled immediately, and police detained three people on suspicion of helping him. He was arrested on 26 May 2023 in Trebinje in a joint operation by the Interior Ministry and Bosnia and Herzegovina's SIPA; he was reportedly extradited to Serbia in June 2023.
In the retrial, two people who helped him were convicted of assisting an offender after the crime and sentenced to one year and six months.
Minister Bratislav Gašić said in Priboj on 24 May 2023 that the crime had neither a religious nor a political connotation, and that it was devastating for the Interior Ministry that one of its own members had committed it. Representatives of the Bosniak community expressed concern over a series of incidents in the town.
Two protests were held in Novi Pazar, on 26 May and 8 July 2023. The second demanded the harshest punishment and the dismissal of the police officers who had failed to prevent the killing and the escape.
On 18 February 2025, the Higher Court in Užice sentenced Avramović to 11 years for grievous bodily harm, rather than for the aggravated murder charged in the prosecution's indictment. On 17 July 2025, the Court of Appeal in Kragujevac overturned the verdict.
In November 2025, Avramović was convicted of murder and sentenced to 13 years. The Court of Appeal upheld the verdict on 24 February 2026, and on 13 May 2026 the Supreme Court rejected the defence's request for the protection of legality.