Valjevo Prosecutors: August 14 Rally Not Registered

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Valjevo spoke out ahead of August 14, saying that the gathering announced for that day has not been registered with the competent authorities. It is the first time the prosecutor’s office has addressed the public before the anniversary of last year’s unrest in Valjevo, in which, by the prosecutor’s office’s own account, both police officers and citizens were injured.

The statement says that in recent days, social media and parts of the press have carried a large number of posts announcing a gathering for Friday. The prosecutor’s office says none of those posts is backed by any registration filed with the competent authority.

What is the prosecutor’s office asking of organizers?

The entire appeal rests on one sentence that sets a condition, not a recommendation.

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Valjevo reminds citizens that organized public gatherings may be held only, and exclusively, if they have been registered in accordance with the law.

The prosecutor’s office also specifies that the organizer cannot be an informal group or a social media profile, but a named individual, who, besides filing the registration, is also required to set up a marshal service. That assigns responsibility for how the gathering unfolds in advance.

“The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Valjevo informs the public that these announcements are being circulated by individuals or groups that have not registered any gathering whatsoever,” the statement reads. The prosecutor’s office adds that it is not questioning the right to protest, but is calling for that right to be exercised in line with the Constitution and the law.

What happened in August 2025

The part of the statement that carries the most weight looks back at last year. The prosecutor’s office says that during an unregistered gathering in Valjevo in August 2025, public order and peace were seriously breached, several police officers and citizens were injured, and the premises of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Magistrate’s Court, the Police Directorate and the City Administration were smashed and set on fire.

This year’s organizers recall those same days in a different order of events:

• on the night of August 13, 2025, masked attackers, in front of a police cordon, wrecked the cafe “Romana” and injured its owner, his underage son and the guests
• the following night, August 14, 67 people, mostly young, were taken into custody, many of whom sustained injuries
• on August 15, masked attackers broke into a car repair shop and injured the owner and a customer, then wrecked the cafe “Skver,” where an employee was injured

Complaints against police officers, and a summons for a lawyer

After those events, 27 injured parties filed a criminal complaint against 28 police officers. Among them are the head of the Valjevo Police Directorate and officers from Valjevo, Mionica, Ljig, Ub, Osecina, Prijepolje, Priboj and Uzice. BIRN documented forensic examinations of 25 people after August 14, 2025.

Lawyer Nikola Mirkovic, one of ten attorneys representing the injured parties, has been summoned to the prosecutor’s office over a criminal complaint alleging an attack on an official, a complaint that concerns August 14 specifically. “I take this as a form of pressure for us to give up our professional engagement,” Mirkovic told Masina.

Vuk Vasiljevic, former president of the Student Parliament at Valjevo Gymnasium, whose school grades were read out on air by a local television host, sees his own case the same way. “Grades are legally protected information and cannot be disclosed to the public like that,” Vasiljevic told the same outlet.

The gathering is set for 7 p.m. outside the gymnasium

The protest is titled “A Year Without Justice, Valjevo Remembers,” and is organized by students in blockade from Valjevo. The gathering is scheduled for Friday, August 14, at 7 p.m. outside Valjevo Gymnasium, in the very center of town, a few minutes’ walk from the buildings that burned last year.

We previously reported on the schedule of gatherings around this anniversary, when four gatherings were announced over seven days. The prosecutor’s statement is the first time a judicial institution has weighed in on that announcement, and it does so on a question of form rather than substance: who signs the registration, and who provides the marshals.

It remains unknown whether the organizers will register the gathering before Friday, or whether the prosecutor’s office intends to take any action after August 14 against those leading it. The case opened over the injured parties’ criminal complaint, filed ten months ago, has since been forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime.