Warrant Issued for Slavija Info Editor Ljubomir Stefanovic
Belgrade's cybercrime prosecutors are seeking Ljubomir Stefanovic over a post on X. He says he is in hiding and will not surrender before October 26.
The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade announced on October 19 that, on the order of its Special Department for Combating High-Tech Crime, police have issued a warrant for Ljubomir Stefanovic, editor of the YouTube channel Slavija Info. He is suspected of causing panic and disorder. Stefanovic spoke out the same day and said he is in hiding.
What is Stefanovic accused of?
According to the prosecutors’ statement, there are grounds to suspect that on October 16, 2026, he posted the sentence “Vucic will shoot at citizens on election day” on the Slavija Info profile on X. It was accompanied by a video featuring a generically rendered likeness of Milos Medenica. The statement says the video claims that a high-ranking member of the “Skaljar clan” from Montenegro will shoot at Serbian citizens after the elections are stolen and the “SNS cartel” is declared the winner.
The search was ordered after Stefanovic was not found at his registered address on October 17. That Saturday, police searched and sealed his apartment. According to Danas, the search was carried out by the Criminal Police Directorate on the order of the High-Tech Crime Prosecutor’s Office, in his absence.
What does Stefanovic say?
In an address on his YouTube channel, Stefanovic said he has no trust in the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is headed by Nenad Stefanovic, or in the High-Tech Crime Prosecutor’s Office. He claims he has endured pressure from police and prosecutors for seven years, that he has been searched at the border more than 90 times, and that the apartment search is the peak of that series.
He explained his distrust this way:
“After members of the BIA abducted me in 2024, I filed a complaint with that prosecutor’s office, and six months later they decided it wasn’t an abduction if I was the one involved. Through the SHARE Foundation I proved by forensic analysis that viruses had been planted on my phone so they could wiretap me. I filed a complaint in October 2024 and nothing was done.”
Stefanovic added that he will keep working as soon as he gets the equipment seized in the search, and he urged citizens to turn out for the upcoming elections. He also said:
“If anything happens to me, the regime of Aleksandar Vucic and the people around him are responsible.”
On surrendering he was categorical: “I will not surrender voluntarily before October 26.” He did not say where he is, only that he is in a relatively safe place. Later, as Danas reports, he posted on social media that he is fine and has taken cover, because he did not know police would come to search his apartment.
Reactions from his lawyer and ANEM
Lawyer Nikola Lakic told the Beta agency that, by his count, this is the third time in the past year that Stefanovic has been targeted:
“This is already the third time in the past year that Stefanovic has been persecuted by this regime.”
Lakic also told the same agency that “this regime will not stop its repression of citizens, and it can only increase.”
The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) asked the Interior Ministry and the prosecutors to explain to the public as soon as possible why police searched and sealed the apartment. It asked the ODIHR observation mission to raise the question urgently with police and prosecutors.
The material available to the newsroom contains no response from the prosecutors to Stefanovic’s claims about his distrust or the 2024 complaint.
