Serbian citizen attacked in Zagreb police holding room
A 22-year-old turned on a 33-year-old Serbian citizen early Thursday inside a holding room in Zagreb's Crnomerec district. Officers broke up the assault and an investigation is under way.
A Serbian citizen was attacked early on Thursday inside a holding room at the Zagreb Police Administration. According to the police report, a 22-year-old man went at a 33-year-old Serbian citizen at around 5:55 a.m., while the two were being held in the same room. The building is on Oranicki odvojak street, in Zagreb’s Crnomerec district. Officers entered the room and stopped the assault.
The report says the younger man used physical force in an attempt to kill the older one. No weapon or object was mentioned. The attack ended when officers already inside the building intervened.
How badly was the Serbian citizen hurt
The injured man was treated at Sveti Duh Clinical Hospital in Zagreb. The severity of his injuries had not been established at the time of publication. Police did not say whether he was kept in hospital for further treatment.
A criminal investigation is running. No motive has been released, and police have not explained why the two men were in custody before the incident.
Zagreb police have not disclosed:
- the attacker’s initials or citizenship
- the legal classification of the offence
- the grounds on which either man was being held
Why were two detainees in the same room?
That question has no answer yet. Holding rooms are meant for short stays, before questioning or before a detainee is brought in front of a judge, and the shift running the facility decides who goes where. If the placement turns out to have been a lapse, it becomes a matter for internal review, separate from the criminal case against the attacker. Croatian police have not commented on it.
What the report does show is that the assault was stopped by people, not by equipment. Officers walked in while it was still going on, and that is why this is being treated as an attempt rather than a death in custody.
What happens next in the case
The classification of the offence is set by the state attorney’s office, not by the police, and it can change once medical documentation on the injuries arrives. Murder in Croatia carries a prison sentence of at least five years. For an attempt, the court may impose a reduced sentence, so the range depends on how far the act went and how serious the injuries turn out to be.
Until a final verdict, the attacker is treated as a suspect. The injured man’s statement will be one of the main pieces of evidence, and any camera footage from the holding area would go into the file.
The consular side
Because the injured man is a foreign national, the case also has a consular dimension. Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963, the receiving state must inform the detainee’s consulate at his request and allow contact. Serbia has an embassy with a consular section in Zagreb.
Whether the consulate was informed, and whether anyone from the embassy has reached the injured man, was not known at the time of publication. Neither the Serbian Interior Ministry, known as MUP, nor the Foreign Ministry has commented.
Known and unknown
The time, the location, the ages of both men and the fact that officers cut the attack short are all on the record. The motive is not. Neither is the severity of the injuries, nor whether the two men were held over the same case or brought in independently of each other.
The next piece that would settle it is the prosecutor’s decision on classification and on any request for custody. That usually lands within days of an arrest, and only then will it be clear whether the 22-year-old is charged with attempted murder or with a serious offence against bodily integrity.
