Law Faculty: Recording Gear Found in Belgrade Lecture Hall

The management of the University of Belgrade Law Faculty said on October 31 that technical equipment believed to be used for audio and video recording was found the day before, on Friday, October 30, in Lecture Hall V, named after Radomir Lukic. The faculty presents this as an assumption, not an established fact. University of Belgrade Rector Vladan Djokic has asked for an investigation into who installed the equipment, when, and with what intent.

Where was the equipment found?

According to the statement, the faculty’s technical staff found the equipment. It was inside the fire-safety “panic lamp” above the entrance doors of Lecture Hall V, the largest lecture hall at the faculty. The faculty immediately notified the Interior Ministry, and police carried out an on-site inspection and seized the items in question for expert analysis.

The management says the room is used for first-year lectures in the basic academic studies, for study groups, exercises, and other teaching and non-teaching activities. That is precisely why, it stresses, the discovery is especially worrying. The statement is signed by the faculty management, with no individual named.

In the statement, the management says the finding points to a violation of the inviolability of university premises and of privacy, and calls on the authorities to act:

We expect the competent authorities to carry out the procedures prescribed by law without delay in order to establish the relevant facts, and to inform the Law Faculty and the public about it in a timely manner.

The management says such a situation “points to a gross violation of the legally guaranteed inviolability of university premises, and a gross violation of the privacy of students and employees of the Law Faculty.”

What did the rector say?

Djokic published a written statement on the official Facebook page of the University of Belgrade. He demands an urgent and complete investigation of all the circumstances, as well as the identification of those responsible for installing the devices and of their motives. In the statement he stressed that the University must be a place of free thought, open dialogue, critical thinking, and free assembly.

The rector also accused the outgoing government, which remains his own assessment:

The fact that eavesdropping devices were located in a lecture hall where lectures, public forums, and plenums are held is yet another proof that the outgoing government was ready to settle scores with its dissenters in violation of the law

At the same time, Djokic made his assessment conditional on a legal classification that has yet to be established. The statement reads:

Should it be confirmed that these are devices installed for the secret monitoring and recording of students, such conduct represents a gross violation of the autonomy of the University, and raises a serious question of the existence of elements of a criminal offense

The rector wants the case fully clarified and all those responsible to face the consequences provided by law.

What is still unknown?

The published statements do not say when the devices were installed, whether any recording was actually made, or who is behind it. The Interior Ministry has not published a response on the substance of the case, and neither the Serbian Progressive Party nor other government representatives have answered the rector’s accusation as of publication. The result of the expert analysis of the seized items is what could confirm or refute the faculty’s initial assumption.