BELGRADE – Serbian police entered the offices of four civil society organizations (CSOs) this morning to collect information on the possible misuse of USAID funds, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade stated. This institution confirmed it had formed a case based on the claims of several officials of the United States that USAID funds had been misused worldwide. CSOs accused the state of “attacking basic civic rights and a continuation of an unlawful pressure on the civil society in Serbia”.
The launch of the investigation follows weeks of public statements by the highest Serbian officials, including President Aleksandar Vučić, that USAID was involved in funding a “coloured revolution” in Serbia, referring to the ongoing student protests. Before the suspension of USAID, Serbian officials closely cooperated with the Agency, often lauding its contribution to the economic development of Serbia.
Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade announced this morning that it had formed a case and had contacted the United States Department of Justice to provide the necessary information regarding “the suspicions of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that the top US government officials previously expressed regarding the misuse of funds, possible money laundering and the misuse of US taxpayer funds in Serbia”.
The Prosecutor’s Office did not state which exact claims it was referring to, only that the claims mentioned “non-governmental organisations and contracting parties from the US which received projects in Serbia”.
“Among those who expressed suspicions about the work of USAID are President of the United States Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, as well as the Department of Government Efficiency headed by Elon Musk, and also FBI Director Kash Patel”, the statement reads.
The chief public prosecutor of Belgrade’s Public Prosecutor’s Office Nenad Stefanović stated that the request was made to the US Justice Department through the Serbian Ministry of Justice to provide information regarding these suspicions.
He stated that the police were requested to collect information from four non-governmental organizations: CRTA, Civic Initiatives, Centre for Practical Politics and the Trag Foundation.
CSOs react: Authorities are implementing the mechanisms of intimidation
Civic Intiatives, one of the organisations included in the probe, released a statement confirming that at around 9:20 on Tuesday, around 20 members of the Criminal Police Directorate entered their offices, but that they did not show the search warrant.
“At the same time… the police also raided the Center for Practical Politics, an organization that does not have a USAID project at all – despite the fact that the regime media are claiming that the raids are related to USAID funding of civil society”, the statement reads.
The same assessment was reiterated by the Center for Practical Politics Dragan Popović, who wrote on X that this is a “repression of society by an authoritarian regime”.
Civic Initiatives wrote in their statement that this is a “serious attack on basic civil rights and a continuation of illegal pressure on civil society in Serbia”.
Jutros oko 9:20h dvadesetak policajaca iz Uprave kriminalističke policije upalo je u prostorije Građanskih inicijativa, navodeći da imaju nalog Tužilaštva da provere rad organizacije, ali nisu hteli da pokažu nalog za pretres.
Uporedo s tim, u Kući ljudskih prava policija je… pic.twitter.com/0QBqw4I39O
— građanskeinicijative (@gradjanske) February 25, 2025
“The authorities are trying to implement mechanisms of intimidation and persecution without adopting the Law on Foreign Agents, which has entered the parliamentary procedure, but has not yet been formally adopted”, the statement reads.
The statement adds that this use of the police for political purposes represents “a gross abuse of state institutions to crack down on dissenters and a continued suppression of free and democratic action in Serbia”
“We expect a reaction from the domestic and international public to this reckless violation of democratic values and legal certainty”, the statement concludes.
CRTA released a short statement confirming that the police had entered its offices and that it was fully cooperating with state authorities.
“The question we ask is how come the tabloids published this information before the police even came to our office”, CRTA asked.
Earlier in February, the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering launched an investigation into the bank accounts of several civil society activists, including some who are now included in this probe as well. The activists at the time described this investigation, which did not mention USAID, as an intimidation attempt as well.
A long track record of government’s intimidation of civil society
The Serbian government, led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has for years been taking steps that were widely assessed as intimidation attempts against the critical civil society organisations.
A tense relationship between the government and the CSOs reached another crisis earlier this month when a number of CSOs suspended cooperation with Serbian authorities amid the ongoing mass student protests. They stated that the authorities attempted to uphold a false facade of democracy by formally involving civil society in decision-making processes, while at the same time exerting pressure on both civil society and the protesters.
Smearing campaigns against the CSOs have become a regular occurrence in recent years, especially during the frequent anti-government protests. In August 2024, during the country-wide protests against lithium mining, pro-government media pushed a well-established narrative that the “foreign mercenaries” in the civil society were planning to overthrow the government of Serbia in a “coloured revolution”
In 2020, a list containing the names of dozens of CSOs and media reportedly subject to a risk assessment by the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering was leaked to the public. International organisations expressed concerns that Serbia was using its laws with the aim to restrict or coerce civil society actors for their work and criticism of the government.
More recently, in late 2024, Amnesty International released a report claiming Serbian police and intelligence authorities had used advanced phone spyware to unlawfully target journalists and civil society activists.
In January 2025, 13 foreign civil society activists were interrogated and deported from Serbia after being labelled as “security risk”. The activists were participating in an international conference that had nothing to do with Serbian domestic affairs and were not provided justification for this treatment.