Vucic: BIA Has Evidence Students Lied About Wiretapping

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on the evening of September 4, 2026, in an address to Informer television from Nis, that Serbia’s Security Information Agency (BIA) had informed him it possesses evidence that representatives of the students in blockade and his political opponents lied about being wiretapped. N1 carried the statement at 10:17 p.m., while Nova.rs published its report earlier, at 9:43 p.m., and updated it at 10:32 p.m.

“BIA told me it has evidence that the students lied about the wiretapping,” Vucic said.

The statement comes as students in blockade maintain that at least fourteen people in Serbia were targeted by the Israeli spyware Pegasus. BIA had earlier dismissed those claims, calling them sensationalism and pointing to the interests of foreign services. Vucic is now saying the opposite, that it was the agency itself that gave him evidence the claims are false, without specifying the form in which that evidence was presented or when the conversation with the agency took place.

A Comparison to North Macedonia

In the same address, the president compared the situation to events in North Macedonia, without elaborating on which specific event he meant.

“This is a rerun of the Macedonian scenario, that’s how it started there,” Vucic said.

The president has used this comparison in previous months on other topics related to the student protests as well, so it does not carry a new fact on its own. Instead, it signals the tone the government takes toward the wiretapping claims, treating them as an external scenario rather than a domestic security issue.

The European Path and the Legitimacy of Power

Vucic said in the same interview that he is not giving up on Serbia’s European path, even though, as he put it, he is aware Serbia will not be admitted to the European Union.

“I will not give up on the European path, but I am aware that they will not let us in,” Vucic said.

The president then explained what he says gives him the legitimacy to keep leading the country.

“I serve only my people, I understand geopolitics well, and that is why I will lead the country for as long as I have the trust of citizens: rationally, seriously, responsibly,” Vucic said.

Opposition Calls for an Investigation

The claims that students and lawmakers were wiretapped through Pegasus had already been the subject of an institutional dispute before this statement. The Green-Left Front’s parliamentary group had earlier demanded an investigation into allegations that the spyware was installed on the phones of students and members of parliament, while BIA, as the portal Srpske vesti reported in late August in a piece titled “BIA Dismisses Claims That Students Were Spied On With Pegasus,” labeled those claims sensationalism.

Vucic’s statement from that evening thus adds a third version to the dispute: after the students’ claim that they were wiretapped and the agency’s own denial, the president is now claiming that BIA, contrary to its earlier public position, personally confirmed to him that the allegations are untrue. Neither source has so far published a document or technical finding to back up its claim, leaving open the question of whether BIA will present such evidence publicly.

Context in Nis

The interview with Informer was conducted ahead of a session of the Serbian Progressive Party’s Main Board, scheduled for September 5 at 11 a.m., also in Nis. In the same appearance, the president commented on how part of the local public views his visit to the city, suggesting the statement on BIA and the students came as part of a broader effort to set the stage for the party gathering rather than as a standalone statement on a security matter.

Whether the Security Information Agency will officially confirm or deny the president’s claims before or during the Main Board session in Nis has not been announced.