BELGRADE – The Security Information Agency (BIA) wiretapped the offices of the liberal opposition party Free Citizens Movement (PSG) in Novi Sad for three and a half months, obtaining a recording of a conversation between PSG members and members of the student group STAV, which led to their arrest in March, Insajder reported.
On 13 March, two days before the massive student protest in Belgrade, the largest pro-government television channels jointly aired a two-hour special program dedicated to the leaked recording of the activists’ meeting in Novi Sad. They claimed that the recording, made by BIA, was actually made by one of the undisclosed participants of the meeting, who supposedly leaked it to the media.
The activists, who were not among the organisers of the protests but planned to attend, discussed possible actions depending on how the events unfolded. Pro-government journalist pushed the narrative that this conversation was proof of a pending coup and bloodshed on 15 March.
A day after the recording was aired and a day before the protest, six PSG and STAV members were arrested. The activists were held in prison for weeks and were released to house arrest in May. In October, this measure was finally revoked.
Another six participants in the meeting were abroad at the time of the arrests and have not returned to Serbia since, while arrest warrants were subsequently issued for them.
The trial for all twelve activists is scheduled to begin on 24 November before the Higher Court in Novi Sad, with those outside the country to be tried in absentia.
According to the indictment obtained by Insajder, BIA had been monitoring one of the activists, whose identity has not been disclosed.
The measures were extensive and included the monitoring and recording of communications, access to incoming and outgoing calls and messages, and the geolocation of those involved through mobile network base stations.
They also involved covert surveillance and recording in both public places and locations with restricted access.
According to Insajder, the BIA wiretapped the PSG premises for three and a half months.
The orders authorising these measures were signed by Dragan Milošević, President of the Higher Court in Belgrade, and were extended several times by the same court. The final order allowed the surveillance of the Novi Sad branch offices of PSG.
In a statement issued today, the PSG demanded that the criminal proceedings against its members and the STAV activists be dropped, and that both the director of the BIA and the president of the Higher Court in Belgrade be held professionally and criminally accountable for abusing the security apparatus and illegally wiretapping PSG members and premises.
“Today, the public received confirmation of what we have been saying since 14 March, that the meeting held in our office was not recorded by any of the participants, but that there was a serious abuse of the security sector. Based on this illegal recording, a fabricated indictment was constructed, falsely accusing our activists of preparing a serious criminal offence,” PSG stated.
The party added that it is now more than clear that this case was used to intimidate citizens, and that there is finally a confirmation that the state is applying the same methods used by “its brotherly regimes in Russia and Belarus”.
