Djokic Demands Probe of BIA Surveillance of His Aide

The University of Belgrade said on November 5 that the rector’s chief of staff was under secret surveillance for almost a year, ordered by the Security Information Agency (BIA). The statement is signed by Rector Prof. Dr. Vladan Djokic, and it asks prosecutors and the bodies that oversee the security services to establish all the circumstances.

What does the university ask of the state?

The statement says the university is particularly concerned that the services may have been used against people because of their views:

“Particularly worrying is the possibility that the resources of the security services were used to monitor citizens, university employees and students because of their public activity, critical opinions or political views.”

The competent institutions, above all the prosecution and the bodies that oversee the services, must determine whether the measures were abused to settle scores with political opponents. The rector goes a step further and asks whether anyone else was covered: “An additional concern is the question of whether other members of the academic community were also subject to these measures.”

The university closes by telling state bodies that they should act “exclusively in accordance with the law and in the public interest, in the service of all citizens, and not of any government or political interests.”

What is known about the measures against the chief of staff?

The rector’s chief of staff is Danilo Potparic (N1 spells his surname Potporic). According to the weekly Radar, which saw the rulings of the Higher Court in Belgrade ending the measures, surveillance of him was approved in 2026: first on January 27, then on April 27, and it was widened on May 4. The proposal came from the BIA director, citing a suspicion that an offense against the constitutional order and security of Serbia was being prepared, Vreme reports.

The same paper writes that rulings ending the measures were also issued for students, Democratic Party president Srdjan Milivojevic, IT Blokada representative Aleksa Mijuc and Independent Trade Union of Serbian Railwaymen president Radomir Popovic. Further application of the measures was rejected in all those cases after several months. According to Vreme, Potparic does not see the surveillance as separate from the media campaign against him, which has run since 2019, when he publicly backed the defense of academic integrity in the proceedings over Sinisa Mali’s doctoral dissertation.

According to Vreme, neither the BIA nor the Higher Court in Belgrade had publicly responded to these claims by the time of publication.

What do lawyers say about the same case?

Lawyers are raising the question of responsibility over the surveillance of Radar journalists as well. Radar reported that BIA director Vladimir Orlic sought measures against editor in chief Vesna Malisic and journalists Sandra Petrusic and Milan Radonjic. They were first approved on June 12, lasted until October 22 and included recording inside the newsroom. Our earlier article on the subject also covered the demand by NUNS, the journalists’ association, for Orlic’s dismissal.

Lawyer Nikola Lakic called on the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime to open proceedings against Orlic and the president of the Higher Court in Belgrade, Dragan Milosevic. He described the surveillance of journalists on suspicion of espionage as a gross abuse of state institutions. Lakic also said:

“In that procedure they would have to establish whether Vladimir Orlic and Dragan Milosevic bear responsibility. Should the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime fail to act urgently in this case, Zagorka Dolovac would have to order it to do so with a binding instruction, especially bearing in mind the fact that, besides the Radar journalists, prosecutors of that office, numerous citizens, students and other journalists were also secretly followed and wiretapped, and that it is certain there were numerous abuses.”

He also demanded that the new authorities abolish the BIA and set up a new security institution.

Lawyer Katarina Golubovic of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM) said on the N1 show “Dan uzivo” that the human right to privacy is what the prosecution should examine:

“The Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime would have to deal with this issue, and not only in the Radar case but in the other cases that are slowly surfacing, but I believe that in the coming days there will be an avalanche of information about who was wiretapped and during what period.”

Djokic earlier demanded an urgent investigation over eavesdropping devices found in an amphitheater of the Faculty of Law, and Citizen Lab and SHARE confirmed that his phone had been infected with Pegasus spyware.