Zabela Prison Escapee Arrested in Smederevo After a Year
A convict who fled the Pozarevac-Zabela Correctional Facility in September 2025 was arrested a year later in Smederevo and returned to prison to serve his sentence for aggravated theft.
Officers of Serbia’s Ministry of Interior (MUP) have arrested a man in Smederevo who had spent a year on the run after escaping the Pozarevac-Zabela Correctional Facility. According to a MUP statement issued on September 1, the man is S.B., 59, who fled the facility in September 2025.
The operation, the ministry said, was carried out by the Criminal Intelligence Service of the Criminal Police Directorate together with officers of the Smederevo Police Department. The suspect was tracked down and arrested within that department’s territory, almost a full year after he vanished from the correctional facility.
The Ministry of Interior’s statement said officers “located and arrested S.B. (59) over his escape from the Pozarevac-Zabela Correctional Facility.” S.B. had been serving a prison sentence as a repeat offender convicted of aggravated theft.
On what happens next, the ministry said “S.B. will be transported to the Pozarevac-Zabela Correctional Facility to continue serving his prison sentence.” MUP also released video footage of the arrest along with its statement.
No public information about the search for S.B. had surfaced before now, and his escape had not previously been reported. Zabela is one of Serbia’s largest correctional facilities, and the case shows the escapee managed to evade capture for nearly a year before the Criminal Intelligence Service tracked him down.
Sources differ slightly on how long the escape lasted. Kurir and Nova, citing the MUP statement, report the man had been on the run for about a year, dating from September 2025. Telegraf’s headline says the escapee was “finally caught after two years,” though its own report, like the ministry’s statement, places the escape in September 2025, a timeline that matches roughly a year rather than two.
The case has now come full circle. S.B. will continue serving the remainder of his sentence at Zabela, while MUP lists the arrest as another in a series of recaptures of escapees from Serbia’s correctional facilities.
