Batajnica: Vienna Not Told of Charges Against YouTubers
Serbia's Defense Ministry filed criminal complaints against two Austrians for entering the Batajnica military airfield, and Austria's Foreign Ministry says it received no information.
Austria’s Foreign Ministry said on October 8 that Serbian authorities have not contacted it, even though Serbia’s Defense Ministry announced a day earlier that it had filed criminal complaints against two Austrian citizens for entering the fenced part of the Batajnica military airfield.
What happened at the Batajnica airfield?
Two YouTubers from the Roofless TV channel posted a video of about twenty minutes on September 28. It shows fighter jets flying overhead, then the pair making their way through brush into an area they describe as a military base in Serbia, filming aircraft that are out of service and climbing into some of them. Within a few days the video passed half a million views.
After the video appeared, opposition representatives and some military experts criticized the army, calling it a serious security lapse because unknown people had been in close proximity to the runways and other strategic facilities at the airfield.
What does the Defense Ministry say?
The statement was published on October 7, nine days after the video. In it, the ministry says that
“individuals, contrary to clearly posted warning signs, entered a fenced area where such movement is prohibited and potentially dangerous.”
The two are charged with unauthorized access to a military facility under Article 416 of the Criminal Code, which carries a prison sentence of up to three years.
The ministry claims their entry did not endanger the “operational capability of military units,” because it is a part of the complex where no activities take place and which is separated by a fence from the part of the airfield in use. According to the statement, the complex has about 15 kilometers of fencing and is divided into zones of different purpose and importance, “in accordance with which it is also secured.” The video was shot in a separate section that is partly open to civilian firms carrying out preparatory earthworks. The ministry admits that this section has no physical and technical security, but says warning signs were posted. The aircraft and helicopters in the video, it writes, have been decommissioned and none is in operational use.
In the statement the ministry also accuses the media of “media spin” and a “sensationalist story.” Until the statement, it had not answered journalists’ questions, including those from Radio Free Europe (RFE). An RFE crew was at the spot the YouTubers entered from on October 6, but military police were securing the site and allowed neither access nor filming. The authors of the video also did not respond to RFE’s questions.
What does Vienna say?
Austria’s Foreign Ministry told RFE that both it and the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade learned of the case from the media, and that they have received no information from the Serbian authorities about the complaints against the two Austrian citizens.
It remains an open question who is carrying out the works, and under what contract, in the part of the airfield the ministry described as “partially open” to civilian firms. According to Vreme’s reporting, the statement does not answer that question.
