After the SNS Fell, the Handcuffs Reached the Commander of Serbia's Special Anti-Terrorist Unit - and Vulin Called In From Moscow

Less than two weeks after the elections in which the Serbian Progressive Party lost power after 14 years, the handcuffs have started reaching people who until now looked untouchable. On Wednesday Igor Žmirić, commander of the elite Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ), was arrested along with eight others. The suspicion: that in August last year they tortured students in the garage of the Serbian Government building in Belgrade.

According to Serbia's Interior Ministry, eight police officers and one former officer, current and former members of the Unit for the Protection of Certain Persons and Facilities (JZO), on the night of August 14 to 15, 2025, in the Government garage on Nemanjina Street, used force and threats to inflict severe pain and serious suffering on a number of people. The aim, according to the suspicions: to extract information, intimidate them and punish them unlawfully. That evening Belgrade was hosting one of the anti-government protests led by the student movement. All of them have been ordered held for up to 48 hours, on a warrant issued by the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office.

The accusations aren't new - only the handcuffs are. Student Nikolina Sinđelić claimed at the time that the then JZO commander, Marko Kričak, and other members of the unit physically and psychologically abused students in the garage. "Kričak threatened to rape me in front of everyone," she said. The ministry dismissed the accusations, and Kričak sued the student. Then Interior Minister Ivica Dačić claimed she had taken part in an "illegal traffic blockade" and thrown flares at the police. "There was no tying up, no insults, no mistreatment of any kind," Dačić said back then.

After the elections Kričak himself was arrested - by then head of the Criminal Police Directorate - along with Boško Sekulović, head of the Crime Suppression Service. Žmirić, a 47-year-old colonel from Sombor, trained with elite Russian, American and French units and graduated from the International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest. He was appointed SAJ commander in November last year.

The BIA, the prisons and the "capillary votes"

On Thursday the organised crime prosecutor's office opened preliminary investigations against the director of the Security Information Agency (BIA), Vladimir Orlić of the SNS, and caretaker Justice Minister Nenad Vujić, along with their associates. The suspicions concern the organised harvesting of so-called "capillary votes" for the SNS in the October 25 elections, unlawful conduct within the BIA and systematic pressure on prison staff.

The complaints also name the director of the Administration for the Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions, Mile Jandrić, the minister's adviser Milica Radonjić and another 60 named individuals - governors and staff of prisons across Serbia - plus unidentified "high-ranking officials, representatives and activists of the SNS". The list of suspected offences includes criminal conspiracy, abuse of office, giving and taking bribes in connection with voting and unauthorised collection of personal data.

Vulin: "I haven't run anywhere"

Then came the episode that sounds like a film script. On Tuesday evening an Air Serbia plane on flight JU134 from Belgrade to Moscow was turned back, even though it was already deep in European airspace, near the border between Lithuania and Belarus. Security camera footage showed that one passenger went through security escorted by a BIA officer, without the required screening - even though the alarm went off. According to Serbian media, that passenger was Aleksandar Vulin, leader of the Movement of Socialists and chairman of the supervisory board of Srbijagas. Also on board were Srbijagas director Dušan Bajatović and Nenad Popović, leader of the Serbian People's Party. Belgrade's Third Basic Public Prosecutor's Office announced further checks.

The next day Vulin got in touch - from Moscow. "I didn't leave for anywhere, I didn't run anywhere," he said, calling the night when stories spread that he was carrying millions of euros and dozens of kilograms of gold in a small backpack "a night of lies". In Moscow, he says, he'll be meeting "very important representatives of the Russian state and the Russian economy" and will ask them to extend the gas contract. "I'm not the one who'll go to Zagreb to spit on my own country," he added.

The student list won with 53.01 percent against 38.98, according to the state electoral commission's figures, which haven't yet been published as final, and the new government has yet to be formed. Vučić and his associates deny the accusations of violence, pressure on the media and corruption. The Balkans know this film by heart: the government falls, then the arrests begin. So the real question isn't who ends up in handcuffs, but whether prosecutors can prove the cases in court. And if the torture in the garage really happened, why did a government have to fall before anyone would investigate it?