Serbian Anti-Government Protesters Clash With Police in Belgrade
Serbian police clashed with anti-government protesters after tens of thousands rallied in Belgrade demanding an early election to oust President Aleksandar Vucic and his governing party.
Police used stun grenades and pepper spray late Saturday against protesters who hurled rocks and confronted the officers in riot gear. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic condemned the violence, saying in a statement 'police will take all measures to restore public order and peace and will repel all attacks.'
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Serbia police clash with anti-government protesters in Belgrade
Serbian police have clashed with a huge crowd of anti-government protesters demanding an early election and end to President Aleksandar Vucic's 12-year rule in the capital Belgrade. A sea of around 140,000 protesters rallied in the city, the largest turnout in recent months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government. "We want elections!" the crowd chanted. Dozens have been arrested, with riot police seen firing tear gas and stun grenades. President Vucic accused protesters calling for an election of being part of a foreign plot trying to usurp his country. "They wanted to topple Serbia, and they have failed," he wrote on his Instagram page. On Friday, five people were detained, accused of plotting to overthrow the government, according to a statement from Serbia's Higher Court in Belgrade. Following the clashes, the police minister strongly condemned violence by protesters and said those responsible would be arrested. Months of protests across the country - including university shutdowns - have rattled Mr Vucic, whose second term ends in 2027 when there are also parliamentary elections scheduled. Sladjana Lojanovic, 37, a farmer from the town of Sid in the north, said on Saturday she came to support students. "The institutions have been usurped and... there is a lot of corruption. Elections are the solution, but I don't think he (Vucic) will want to go peacefully," she told Reuters. The president has previously refused snap elections. His Progressive Party-led coalition holds 156 of 250 parliamentary seats. Mr Vucic's opponents accuse him and his allies of ties to organised crime, corruption, violence against rivals and curbing media freedoms, which they deny. He has maintained close ties to Russia, and Serbia - a candidate for EU membership - has not joined the Western sanctions regime imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. Protests by students, opposition, teachers, workers and farmers began last December after 16 people died on 1 November in the collapse of Novi Sad railway station's roof. Protesters blame corruption for the disaster. The accident has already forced the former prime minister to resign. As Saturday's protest ended, organisers played a statement to the crowd, calling for Serbians to "take freedom into your own hands" and giving them the "green light". "The authorities had all the mechanisms and all the time to meet the demands and prevent an escalation," the organisers said in a statement on Instagram after the rally. "Instead, they opted for violence and repression against the people. Any radicalisation of the situation is their responsibility."
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bodycam video shows woman identify Jon Jones as man threatening cops on phone after crash
Albuquerque Police bodycam video sheds light on the immediate aftermath of former UFC champion Jon Jones' latest run-in with the law. Jones is up against a criminal summons accusing him of fleeing the scene of an accident and leaving a half-naked intoxicated woman behind, then making "allusions to violence" over the phone toward responding officers. The woman, who said she drank alcohol at Jones' house and took mushrooms there, said Jones was the driver of the vehicle, a claim Jones' attorney, Christopher Dodd, vehemently denies. Jones is scheduled for a bond arraignment July 24. The incident occured Feb. 21. In the police video, which was released in portions to the Albuquerque Journal, the woman, sitting in the passneger seat, tells a police safety aide (PSA) that "Jon Jones the fighter" was driving and left the crash site. At one point, she hands the PSA her phone and says "pleae talk to him." The man's voice on the phone, which sounds similar to Jones but never confirms his identity, asks the PSA to identify himself. The PSA again asks the voice for his name. The woman then tells the PSA "that's Jon Jones." The voice sounds irritated by the conversation, brings up his brothers, and says "some of them are bored enough to kill you, to kill YOU." The PSA acknowledges those words as a threat, and the voice responds: "Guess what? You won't be the first guy this year that I threaten, swear to God. You'd be the second one." The voice continues, "My brothers, they kill people for way less. If something happens to me, dude, she's (the woman in the car) flat and dead." The man on the other end of the call never identifies himself as Jones after being asked directly if he is the former UFC champion, who has called Albuquerque home for many years. Jones, who turns 38 next month, retired from MMA and relinquished the heavyweight championship, which now belongs to Tom Aspinall, who had been interim champ since Nov. 11, 2023. For months, Jones didn't appear interested in a title-unification bout against Aspinall. Now the fight is officially off the table as Jones rides off into the sunset of his latest legal battle. This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Did Jon Jones threaten cops after crash? Watch police video
Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
In Serbia, dozens of antigovernment protesters detained in clashes with riot police
BELGRADE, Serbia — Dozens of antigovernment protesters were detained during clashes with riot police in Serbia's capital on Saturday during a massive rally against President Aleksandar Vucic demanding an early parliamentary election. The protest by tens of thousands of demonstrators was held after nearly eight months of persistent dissent led by Serbia's university students that have rattled Vucic's firm grip on power in the Balkan country. The huge crowd chanted: 'We want elections!' as they filled the capital's central Slavija Square and several blocks around it, with many unable to reach the venue. Police handcuffed detained protesters, and an officer was seen injured on the ground during street battles in central Belgrade that lasted several hours. Six police officers and an unknown number of citizens were injured, police said. 'Serbia always wins in the end,' Vucic said in an Instagram post. Vucic, a staunch nationalist and ardent ally of President Trump, has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power more than a decade ago. Though he formally says he wants Serbia to join the European Union, critics say Vucic has stifled democratic freedoms as he strengthened ties with Russia and China. As the protest officially ended, the demonstrators threw eggs, plastic bottles and other objects at riot police who were preventing the crowd from approaching a downtown park. At the park, hundreds of Vucic's loyalists have been camping for months to form a human shield in front of his headquarters in the capital. Serbia's Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said protesters attacked the police. He said officers restored public order and would 'arrest all those who attacked the police.' Police later said dozens of 'hooligans' were detained but did not provide an exact number. Some demonstrators wore scarfs and masks over their faces as they clashed with law enforcement, using garbage cans as protection against baton-wielding officers. Police used pepper spray before pushing protesters with their shields. Tensions were high before and during the gathering as riot police deployed around government buildings. 'Elections are a clear way out of the social crisis caused by the deeds of the government, which is undoubtedly against the interests of their own people,' said a student who didn't give her name while addressing the crowd from a stage. 'Today, on June 28, 2025, we declare the current authorities illegitimate.' At the end of the official part of the rally, students told the crowd to 'take freedom into your own hands.' University students have been a key force behind nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations that started after a renovated rail station canopy collapsed on Nov. 1, killing 16 people. Many blamed the concrete roof crash on rampant government corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects, leading to recurring mass protests. 'We are here today because we cannot take it anymore,' student Darko Kovacevic said. 'This has been going on for too long. We are mired in corruption.' Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have repeatedly refused the demand for an early vote and accused protesters of planning to spur violence on orders from abroad, which they didn't specify or provide evidence of. Vucic's authorities have launched a crackdown on Serbia's striking universities and other opponents, while increasing pressure on independent media as they tried to curb the demonstrations. Though numbers had shrunk in recent weeks, the massive showing for Saturday's anti-Vucic rally suggested that the resolve persists, despite relentless pressure and after nearly eight months of almost daily protests. Serbian police, who are firmly controlled by Vucic's government, said 36,000 people were present at the start of the protest Saturday. An independent monitoring group that records public gatherings said around 140,000 people attended the student-led rally. Saturday marks St. Vitus Day, a religious holiday and the date when Serbs mark a 14th century battle against Ottoman Turks in Kosovo that was the start of hundreds of years of Turkish rule, holding symbolic importance for the protesters. In their speeches Saturday, some of the rally speakers evoked the theme, which was also used to fuel Serbian nationalism in the 1990s that later led to the incitement of ethnic wars after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Hours before the student-led rally, Vucic's party bused in scores of its own supporters to Belgrade from other parts of the country, many wearing T-shirts reading: 'We won't give up Serbia.' They were joining a camp of Vucic's loyalists in central Belgrade where they have been staying in tents since mid-March. In a show of business as usual, Vucic handed out presidential awards in the capital, including to artists and journalists. 'People need not worry — the state will be defended and thugs brought to justice,' he told reporters Saturday. Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections are due in 2027. Earlier this week, police arrested several people accused of plotting to overthrow the government and banned entry into the country, without explanation, for several people from Croatia and a theater director from Montenegro. Serbia's railway company halted train service over an alleged bomb threat in what critics said was an apparent bid to prevent people from traveling to Belgrade for the rally. Authorities made similar moves in March, before the biggest-ever antigovernment protest in the Balkan country, which drew hundreds of thousands of people. Gec writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed to this report.
