Policeman Most Likely Inflicted Eye Injury by Fellow Officer, Show Video Footage

(BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Lazar Bacic, who suffered an eye injury during a protest outside the state public broadcaster RTS building in downtown Belgrade, was in plainclothes when sustaining a trauma to the eye, was offered assistance by students while he was leaving the gathering, while his injury was most probably inflicted by a fellow colleague wearing a police uniform, show video footage posted in social media X by protesters, which have been published by certain local media outlets.

One video features Bacic slowly leaving the protest with blood visible in his eye, while several students and a security female officer were offering to help him and asking whether he was well. The other video shows Bacic, firstly moving together with students, and then joining a line of officers in police uniforms when he was hit at his head, most probably by a baton, by a member of the Gendarmerie unit, and crashed to the ground.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has published that officer Bacic was attacked by “plenum Bolsheviks.” Vucic has written on his social media accounts that the police officer “sustained heavily body injuries,” and that he was “hit by brass knuckles.” “Thugs think they are allowed to do whatever they want. They are not. They will be held accountable for every act of violence they have committed,” said Vucic, who has also published a photo with the injured police officer.

The incident has also triggered a heated debate at the Serbian Parliament, which continued its regular spring session March 11.

Borislav Novakovic, an MP of the People’s Movement of Serbia, said that “Vucic has been constantly provoking panic and mess,” accusing him of “lying”. “The policeman was injured, but not by students or citizens, as video footage show that it was done by his colleague from the Gendarmerie unit,” Novakovic said.

Green-Left Front whip Radomir Lazovic also said that the police officer had not been injured by the students, and criticized Interior Minister Ivica Dacic and the Ministry for telling false information.

Milimir Vujadinovic, an MP of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, dismissed claims by Lazovic and Novakovic, accusing them of “selling lies.” He stressed that students’ demands had been fulfilled, adding that those who had gathered outside the RTS building were not students, but anarchists. “It does not matter who of those anarchists hit a Serbian police officer last night, but who had issued that order. We think that those who had ordered this are the people from the opposition ranks,” Vujadinovic said.