February 28, 2025
The Office of the Higher Public Prosecutor dispatched armed police units to the premises of some of the most esteemed non-governmental organisations in Serbia, including the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), the Civic Initiative, the Trag Foundation and the Centre for Practical Politics.
In justifying the raids, the prosecutor’s office mentioned the statements of individual members of the U.S. government who warned that recipients of financial aid from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) may have “misused funds” and “laundered money”.
The Higher Public Prosecutor issued orders for all documentation related to USAID donations to be seized from NGOs and for responsible individuals within those organisations to be brought in for questioning.
Twenty NGOs issued a joint public statement announcing that the Serbian government is using the opportunity to take down non-governmental organisations that have for years been pointing out corruption, illegalities and human rights violations. They strongly condemned the armed police raids on the premises of non-governmental organisations that were conducted without a proper court order.
“The ruling structures are trying to implement mechanisms that serve to intimidate and persecute without the adoption of the Law on Foreign Agents, which has begun its passage through parliament, but has yet to be formally adopted. This kind of use of the police for political purposes represents a flagrant abuse of state institutions to deal with dissidents and marks a continuation of the suppression of free and democratic action in Serbia,” announced the Civic Initiative.
CRTA is also the publisher of fact-checking website Istinomer, which prompted Reporters Without Borders to call on the institutions of the European Union, which Serbia aspires to join, to decisively condemn the deliberate targeting and criminalisation of an organisation that provides Serbian citizens with reliable information.
Certain analysts have pointed out the risk of Serbia sliding increasingly towards dictatorial systems like those of Russia and Belarus.
