Two Minors Arrested Over Backpack Attack on Vozdovac

Two minors, aged 15 and 16, have been arrested in Belgrade over an attack on a 19-year-old Russian national. The attack happened on Friday, August 7, around 3 p.m., on Vojvode Stepe Street in the Vozdovac neighborhood, in front of a grocery store.

The victim was wearing a backpack at the time. According to unofficial information, the girls suddenly attacked her, knocked her to the ground and beat her until they tore the backpack away, then ran off with it.

That is when the situation turned. The 19 year old ran after them, caught up, and managed to get her backpack back. The attackers then fled the scene.

Camera footage led to identification

The entire incident was captured by security cameras on a nearby building. Police used the footage to establish the identity of both girls. According to unofficial information, the minors are known in that part of Vozdovac.

Both were quickly located and arrested. The competent prosecutor’s office was notified of the case and is expected to determine all the circumstances.

Footage from private cameras mounted on the facades of shops and apartment buildings has for years been the first piece of evidence in street attacks of this kind. Vojvode Stepe Street, one of the busiest roads in Vozdovac, has a high concentration of such cameras, since it is lined with shops, pharmacies and grocery stores. That is what cut the time from the police report to the arrests down to just a few hours in this case.

Taking another person’s property by force is legally distinct from theft and is typically classified as robbery. The final legal classification is up to the prosecutor’s office, not the police.

How does the girls’ age change the proceedings?

In Serbia, no one under the age of 14 can be held criminally responsible. Both girls are above that threshold, but they do not fall into the same legal category.

The 15 year old is classified as a younger minor. Under the law, only educational measures can be imposed on her. There is no such thing as a juvenile prison sentence for that age group, regardless of how serious the offense is.

The 16 year old is classified as an older minor. Educational measures remain the rule for her as well, and juvenile detention is the exception, possible only for more serious offenses and under strictly defined conditions.

Educational measures fall into three groups:

• warning and guidance measures, including a court reprimand and special obligations
• intensified supervision measures, carried out by parents or a guardianship authority
• institutional measures, meaning placement in an educational institution or a correctional facility

An institutional measure is the most severe and is imposed only when milder measures are not sufficient.

What does the process against minors look like?

The case is handled by a juvenile judge, within a special division of the higher court. A minor must have defense counsel from the first hearing onward, and this is mandatory defense, not a right the minor chooses to exercise.

The public is excluded from such proceedings. Publishing details of the process or the court’s decision without the court’s permission is prohibited. That is why, in cases like this, the names of the minors, their photographs and the schools they attend are not published, even when that information is known in the neighborhood.

Pretrial detention for a minor is an exceptional measure. It is ordered by a juvenile judge and lasts for a shorter period than in proceedings against adults.

Until the court reaches a final ruling, the girls are treated as suspects. Guilt is established neither in a police report nor in a media report.

The next step falls to the juvenile prosecutor, who will assess whether preparatory proceedings will be opened against the girls and whether an educational measure will be proposed. The backpack was returned to the victim at the scene, but returning stolen property does not erase the criminal offense, since force was used, and that is already part of the description of the act.