Police Say 3,500 Attended Valjevo Rally, 11 Detained
The Interior Ministry said around 3,500 people attended an unauthorized gathering in Valjevo, that 11 people were brought to a police station, and that one criminal complaint is being filed.
The Serbian Interior Ministry said that at the peak of attendance, around 3,500 people were present at a gathering in Valjevo, and that 11 people were brought to the offices of the Valjevo Police Department. The gathering, held under the banner “A Year Without Justice, Valjevo Remembers,” took place on Friday, August 14, and according to the Interior Ministry ran from 7:00 p.m. to 10:50 p.m.
The Interior Ministry describes the event as an unauthorized public gathering organized by students, and says participants arrived in Valjevo from across Serbia. The ministry specifies that the 11 people were brought in before, during and after the gathering for violations under the Firearms and Ammunition Act and the Identity Card Act.
What police say they found on those detained
The statement listed what was found on these people. These are items police treat as gear for confrontation, and the list is longer than in earlier statements about gatherings outside Belgrade:
- telescopic batons and knives
- a stun gun and pepper spray canisters
- balaclavas for concealing faces and protective masks
- helmets and vests
- radio equipment
The Interior Ministry did not specify how many individual items were seized from how many people, nor whether proceedings beyond a misdemeanor case have been opened against any of them.
One criminal complaint, under Article 344a
The Interior Ministry says that during the gathering, a participant identified by the initials D.H. attacked another woman, identified as N.P., with a telescopic baton. This incident is behind the only criminal complaint to come out of the gathering.
Following consultation with the duty prosecutor at the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Valjevo, a criminal complaint will be filed against protest participant D.H. through regular proceedings for committing the criminal offense of violent behavior at a sporting event or public gathering, prescribed under Article 344a of the Serbian Criminal Code.
The complaint is therefore being filed through regular proceedings, so what happens next depends on the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Valjevo, the same office handling the case over police conduct in the same city a year earlier.
How the gathering unfolded
The gathering began at 7:00 p.m. in front of the Valjevo Gymnasium. Savo Manojlovic of the Kreni-Promeni movement and student Tamara Jeremic addressed the crowd, with speeches wrapping up around 9:40 p.m., after which the group set off on a protest march.
Around 10:42 p.m., participants marked, in red paint, locations where force had been used a year earlier. Around 11:18 p.m., roughly half an hour after police records show the gathering had ended, heavy police presence was recorded on the roads leaving Valjevo.
The gathering was prompted by the night between August 14 and 15, 2025, in Valjevo, when 67 people, mostly young, were taken into custody. In October of last year, 27 people filed complaints against 28 identified officers and other, unidentified ones, and the case was taken over in May of this year by the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime. We previously reported that no indictment has been issued even a year later.
What the opposition says
Democratic Party president and member of parliament Srdjan Milivojevic was in Valjevo and rejected the characterization of the student protests as violent.
Protests organized by students have never been violent protests. Violence has always been provoked by the regime of Aleksandar Vucic, and Aleksandar Vucic has personally commanded and directed that violence.
Milivojevic accused the authorities of sending police provocateurs to the protests, people whose job is to trigger a clash with police.
This is a pattern, and it shows his panic and fear over losing power.
He also said that on his way into Valjevo he saw about thirty police vehicles with officers in full gear. Two days earlier, outside the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Valjevo, Milivojevic said that 25 of the 27 injured parties had been questioned by that point.
The next step now has a clear address: the criminal complaint against D.H. is headed to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Valjevo, the same office already handling the case over police conduct from August 2025.
