Category: Persecution
Period: from 29 Mar 2026
Outcome: No one investigated (as of 30 Mar 2026)
On the evening of 29 March 2026, while votes were being counted in local elections, about ten inspectors from the Criminal Police Directorate raided the Belgrade offices of the People's Movement of Serbia with a search warrant over suspected violation of voting rights. Party officials say members were locked in a single room, and the police did not leave until after midnight. The operation was allegedly led by Branislav Milenković. The prosecutor's office says the search was lawful, while the party says the aim was to get into its phones.
Inspectors from the Criminal Police Directorate, then headed by Marko Kričak, arrived at the NPS offices in Takovska Street at around 21h, and riot police soon followed. Party president Miroslav Aleksić says members were locked in a single room and asked to hand over their phones, after which the police searched jackets, rubbish bins and toilet cisterns.
The police left at around one in the morning. Accounts differ on what they took: Aleksić speaks of the party's phones and laptops, while vice-president Miloš Pavlović speaks of paperwork.
The First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade said the search was carried out in accordance with the law and on the order of the duty pre-trial judge, as part of a pre-investigation proceeding over violation of voting rights and unauthorised collection of personal data. According to a report by Nova, the warrant was issued by Judge Teodora Avramović.
Aleksić says the warrant was valid for eight days, yet the police came precisely on election night, and that the violation of voting rights was merely a pretext. Pavlović believes the aim was to gain access to the party's political communications.
The operation by the Special Operations Department was allegedly led by its newly appointed head, Branislav Milenković, a former member of the JZO. Student Nikolina Sinđelić, who was on the premises, says she recognised him from the Government garage in August 2025, that he was the only one who addressed her by name, and that he said he would examine her laptop "with the greatest pleasure". That earlier incident is described in the affair Marko Kričak threatened a student with rape in the Government garage.
On election night, President Aleksandar Vučić said that party officials had phoned voters posing as people from the Office of the President and urged them not to vote for the SNS list. He said “all the phones have been tracked down” and that he believed they would all be arrested. Aleksić says the party has no knowledge of anyone sending such messages, and that it contacts its own members based on its voter records, with their consent.