Commander of Serbia's SAJ Arrested: the Arrests Over Students Tortured in the Government Garage Came Only After SNS Lost Power

Nine people were arrested in Serbia yesterday, among them the man who commands the elite Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ) - Colonel Igor Žmirić. The suspicion is grave: that on the night between 14 and 15 August 2025, in the garage of the Serbian government building in Nemanjina Street in Belgrade, students were tortured. The order was issued by the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office, and the arrests were confirmed by Serbia's Interior Ministry.

The suspects are current and former members of the Unit for the Protection of Certain Persons and Facilities (JZO). Eight police officers and one former officer are being held for up to 48 hours, suspected of abuse and torture. According to the ministry's statement, using force and threats they inflicted severe pain and grave suffering on several people - to extract information from them, intimidate them and punish them unlawfully. That evening Belgrade was hosting one of the anti-government protests led by the student movement.

Here is the first irony. Serbia's Interior Ministry, which is announcing the arrests today, flatly rejected the accusations a year ago. The victims' words haven't changed. Something else has.

The students spoke out from day one

Police brutality during the protests was being talked about back then. Several students, including Nikolina Sinđelić, accused the then commander of the JZO, Marko Kričak, and other members of the unit of physical and psychological abuse in the government garage. "Kričak threatened me with rape in front of everyone," Sinđelić said in a TV interview. The state's response was a lawsuit - Kričak sued the student.

The rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Đokić, also demanded a reaction from the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office as early as August 2025. "Members of the Extended Rectors' Board are deeply shaken by the students' testimonies about police brutality in the government building on 15 August," he wrote. The then interior minister, Ivica Dačić, had a different version: Sinđelić and five others had taken part in an "illegal traffic blockade", called for attacks on the police and thrown flares. "There was no tying up, no insults, no abuse of any kind," Dačić claimed.

The election unlocked the prosecution

The arrests come after the parliamentary elections of 25 October, in which the Serbian Progressive Party lost power after 14 years. Immediately afterwards Marko Kričak, who in the meantime had become head of the Criminal Police Directorate, and Boško Sekulović, head of the Service for Combating Crime, were arrested too. Now it is the SAJ commander's turn.

Žmirić (47) is a colonel born in Sombor, with a career that sounds like it's from a film. He took up parachuting as a teenager, which led him to the Yugoslav Army and the 63rd Parachute Brigade. Then the Gendarmerie, the Counter-Terrorist Unit, and after it was abolished in 2016 - the SAJ. He trained with Russian, American and French special forces, graduated from the International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest, the FBI's training centre in Europe, and is a multiple Serbian parachuting champion. He was appointed SAJ commander in November last year - three months after the night in the garage.

The Balkans know this scene by heart: while the party is in power, the uniform is untouchable, and the moment it falls, prosecutors suddenly find their courage. Whether Žmirić and the others are guilty is for the court to say, not journalists. But one question remains for the prosecution itself - why did it take the ruling party's election defeat, rather than a year of investigation, to act on the students' testimonies?