Prosecutors Blame SUK for Deleted Government Garage Video

Belgrade’s First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office has published a chronology of its handling of the Serbian Government garage case, stating that the Internal Control Sector (SUK) of the Interior Ministry (MUP), the Administration for Joint Services of Republic Bodies and the General Secretariat of the Government made it harder to establish the facts. According to the statement, the surveillance camera footage was deleted before it reached prosecutors.

Srpske Novine previously reported on the detention of SAJ commander Igor Zmiric and other police officers. This is the first time prosecutors, in the same case, have publicly placed responsibility for the course of the evidence gathering on government institutions.

What do prosecutors say about the garage footage?

The criminal complaint arrived on August 21, 2025. The same day, the prosecutor in charge asked SUK to interview the suspects, obtain the police officers’ official notes and deliver the garage camera footage from August 14 as soon as possible. From August 22, the prosecutor’s office took statements on its own from ten injured parties. The case was opened on two criminal complaints, and ex officio for four more injured parties.

Only on October 1, 2025 was the prosecutor’s office told that SUK could not deliver the footage because it is automatically deleted after 30 days. The statement reads:

“Since the footage was requested on the sixth day after the event itself, it is obvious that the competent authorities knowingly waited for the retention period to expire, and only then sent us their answer.”

The prosecutor’s office also says that the Administration for Joint Services of Republic Bodies and the General Secretariat of the Government contributed to the difficulties in establishing the facts through untimely action and by failing to deliver the footage. The response of SUK, the Administration and the General Secretariat to these claims was not known at the time of publication.

What did SUK deliver, and when?

After a supplementary request on October 17, 2025 and several reminders, SUK sent its report with the statements of all the officers named in the complaint only on July 23, 2026. Even then, according to the prosecutor’s office, not every question was answered:

“To this day they have not delivered an answer on whose orders the unit acted and whether the police officers submitted a report on the use of force after the intervention.”

The question of the footage has a wider context. Ombudsman Zoran Pasalic said in September 2025 that he had viewed the garage footage “in detail”, but did not directly answer whether it shows police officers beating the detained citizens.

How did the investigation unfold?

The case spent some time with the civil division of the First Basic Court for review and was returned on September 28, 2026, after which the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office carried out an oversight check by its commission. Under a binding instruction from the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office dated November 2, an investigation into ten suspects on charges of abuse and torture was ordered on November 4. They include Marko Kricak, the former commander of the Unit for the Protection of Certain Persons and Facilities, who is already in detention in another case, and Zmiric.

The suspects were questioned on November 6, and the First Basic Court in Belgrade accepted the prosecutor’s proposal and ordered detention. MUP says the abuse took place on the night between August 14 and 15, 2025, from roughly 10:30 p.m. until one in the morning. The suspects are charged with inflicting severe pain and suffering on a number of injured parties. Guilt has not been established.

Student Nikolina Sindjelic, who was the first to make the accusations public, told N1 about the arrests of the officers:

“After a little more than a year, some things have finally started to change.”

The prosecutor’s office says evidence is currently being gathered in the investigation.