One Year After Valjevo Crackdown, No Indictments Filed
The Prosecution for Organized Crime has questioned 25 of 27 injured residents, but a year after August 14 not a single police officer has been named. The Valjevo protest starts at 7pm.
A protest titled “A Year Without Justice, Valjevo Remembers” begins on Friday, August 14, at 7pm outside the Valjevo Gymnasium, exactly one year after the night following which, according to student organizations, 67 people were detained, most of them young, and around 60 residents sought help at the Valjevo Health Center.
The gathering is organized by students in blockade, with a call to join also issued by the Democratic Party and academic initiatives from several universities. In the year since those events, the public has not been given the name of a single police officer who exceeded their authority, the identity of the masked attackers who ransacked businesses in the city that week has not been established, and no one has been indicted.
A case exists, but no suspects
The Democratic Party filed a criminal complaint after last year’s events against the chief of the Valjevo Police Administration and several unidentified perpetrators. The Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office forwarded the complaint to the Prosecution for Organized Crime in Belgrade.
That office opened a case and questioned 25 of the 27 injured residents, informing the Democratic Party of this two weeks earlier, according to Srdjan Milivojevic, the party’s president and a member of parliament, speaking at a press conference outside the Valjevo Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office building on August 13.
Milivojevic said he had no intention of jeopardizing the investigation, but he raised a question that explains why the figure of 25 questioned witnesses is only half the story.
“I would ask the prosecution, which police officers has it questioned?”
The Democratic Party leader also said that responsibility for last August’s events would not expire under any statute of limitations.
“No one who used force will escape responsibility.”
At the same press conference, he said that, in his assessment, change was close at hand.
“The time for full accountability is coming.”
What happened in Valjevo in August 2025
The violence lasted three nights. On the night of August 13, 2025, masked attackers ransacked the cafe “Romana,” injuring its owner, his underage son, and guests. The following night, August 14, a police intervention led to the detention of 67 people. On August 15, an auto repair shop was attacked, and the cafe “Skver” was also ransacked, injuring an employee.
Students in blockade say the protest is not merely marking an anniversary but a demand that responsibility be established, arguing that what happened in the city is being downplayed and pushed out of public memory.
A letter to the Prime Minister and a statement from the prosecution
Academic initiatives from several universities sent an open letter on Thursday to Prime Minister Djuro Macut. The letter is signed by the Rebel University, the free universities of Novi Sad, Kragujevac and Nis, the Forum of the University of Arts in Belgrade, Proaktiv of the University of Pristina (temporarily seated in Kosovska Mitrovica), the State University of Novi Pazar, and the Academic Plenum.
“So publish the results of the investigation. Allow independent oversight of police conduct. Establish command responsibility regardless of whether it involves an authorized or unauthorized person. Prosecute those found to have exceeded their powers. You owe this to the citizens of Valjevo. You owe this to the young people who were beaten that night. You owe this to all the citizens of Serbia. And finally, you owe this to the institution of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, which you head,” the letter states.
The Valjevo Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office issued a statement ahead of the gathering, appealing to residents to report assemblies to the relevant authorities and asking that organizers be named individuals responsible for arranging marshals. In the same statement, the prosecution said that during last August’s unregistered gathering there was a serious breach of public order, that several police officers and residents were injured, and that the offices of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Misdemeanor Court, the Police Administration and the City Administration were smashed and set on fire.
Milivojevic responded by pointing out that gatherings are reported to the police, not to the prosecution, and that freedom of assembly is a constitutional right.
What route will the march take?
Stalls go up from 5pm on the Town Square. The gathering starts at 7pm outside the Valjevo Gymnasium, and the march sets off at 7:30pm.
- from the gymnasium, past the police building, to a stage at the intersection in Uzun Mirkova Street
- a program on stage from 8pm to 9pm, after which the march continues
- along Vladike Nikolaja Street to Eurocentar, then Sindjeliceva to Karadjordjeva
- on Karadjordjeva, between the intersections with Vlade Danilovica and Hajduk Veljkova streets, the spots where people were beaten are marked
The route is, in effect, a record of the sites from the night of August 14. What is missing from that record is a name: after a year and 25 injured witnesses questioned, not a single suspected police officer has been publicly identified in the case handled by the Prosecution for Organized Crime.
