Beatings, cyberattacks and threats add to insecurity in Vučić's Serbia ahead of elections

Serbian activist Marko Marjanović was returning from a supermarket in Belgrade when masked police officers forced him into a car and took him to the basement of a police station. There, he was held in solitary confinement for two days.

Marjanovic, a popular social media commentator and vocal opponent of Serbia's longtime leader, Aleksandar Vucic, says he was terrified. But this was not the first time he had faced violence. In August 2025, police beat him during anti-government protests. He and his lawyer say these incidents are part of a campaign to silence him.

As former President Vučić aims to extend his 12-year hold on power by running for prime minister in the October 25 election, interviews with activists, student protesters and opposition politicians paint an increasingly authoritarian picture of Serbia. Critics face regular threats, media freedom is eroding and corruption is on the rise. 

"So much corruption... so much destruction of everything that should have value here. Someone has to be held accountable," says Marjanović, who has faced long-term blocking of his social media accounts several times over posts. In one of them, he published the phone number of the acting president, Ana Brnabić, who was the speaker of parliament at the time.

Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) have repeatedly denied accusations of repression of opponents and corruption. His office and the Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment for this report.

Media freedom at its lowest level as protests increase

Vučić is facing his biggest political challenge since coming to power: the student-led protest movement, which gained momentum after the collapse of a shelter at the Novi Sad train station in 2024, which killed 16 people.

The movement is now participating in Sunday's elections with 250 of its candidates. A poll published this week shows that the student candidates and Vučić's SNS enjoy almost equal support.

“Since the SNS came to power, there has never been such a good organization of pro-democratic forces in society,” said Dragan Popović, head of the Center for Practical Politics. “The more Vučić is threatened, the more pressure increases.”

In the late 1990s, Vučić served as Minister of Information, at a time when then-president Slobodan Milošević was trying to silence critics of Serbia's war in Kosovo and subsequent clashes with NATO.

In 2008, Vučić split from the Serbian Radical Party, known for its ultranationalist stances. Today, he says he wants Serbia to join the European Union. But Serbia is also one of the few countries in Europe that has not imposed sanctions on Russia, contrary to EU policies.

The country's ratings in the areas of democracy and the rule of law have deteriorated.

The 2026 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), ranked Serbia 104th out of 180 countries, its lowest position ever. Serbia also ranks last in the Balkans and the European Union.

Even in the Corruption Perceptions Index for 2025, by Transparency International, Serbia scored its worst result in two decades.

According to RSF, six Serbian journalists, including four who fled the country this year, are living in exile due to threats to their safety, fueled by politically motivated attacks.

Data from the Slavko Curuvija Foundation, a non-governmental organization that deals with media issues, shows that Vučić has verbally attacked journalists and media outlets at least 182 times during the first nine months of this year.

Vučić has denied accusations that he is intimidating the media and says that he has not closed any media organizations.

However, experienced journalists say the situation is getting worse. Veran Matić heads a commission for the safety of journalists. In June, a young man attacked him and took his phone while he was filming a protest. Matić also says he has been insulted in the street.

He attributes this violence to Vučić, who has publicly criticized him on several occasions. 

"Almost no day or week goes by without attacks happening, not only against me, but also against many other journalists," Matic told Reuters.

Cyber ​​attacks and spyware

also region June 28, 2026 Reuters: Vucic aims for prime ministership and installs ally as president

Members of the student movement and other prominent opponents of Vučić have also been targeted by cyberattacks, according to organizations that monitor digital rights.

In September, the SHARE Foundation announced that 14 people had been targeted with advanced spyware capable of collecting information from their devices.

Jelena Kontic, who is part of the nationwide protest movement to remove Vucic from power, said that in March she received a notification from Apple warning that the Pegasus spyware program may have been installed on her phone.

According to her, subsequent technical checks, including those conducted by Citizen Lab, a Canadian organization that studies cyber threats, confirmed this.

"They had access to your whole life," Kontic said. "They knew when I exercised, when I slept, when I ate, when I drank water, how much water I drank and what I ate."

The Serbian Security and Information Agency dismissed claims of state involvement as “banal sensationalism.” At the time, Brnabic declared that the students “absolutely were not tapped.” Interior Ministry officials have also dismissed accusations of cyber espionage.

Kontić is not the only one who claims to have been targeted. According to a report published Monday by Citizen Lab, two Serbian opposition figures have recently been targeted with powerful cyber espionage tools.

The Israeli company NSO Group, which produces the Pegasus program, has stated that it only sells its products to governments.

Footage documents brutal beating

Security threats are particularly evident on the streets, where protesters say police have often used force against peaceful demonstrations.

Dusan Radovic, a 26-year-old architect, was helping a man who had fallen to the ground when police violently intervened against a group of protesters in the city of Valjevo in August last year. At that moment, the officers began hitting him with rubber batons.

"Ten of them surrounded me. They kicked me, spat on me, and at one point, one of them stepped on my head. They lifted me to my feet and continued to hit me until I fell to the ground again," Radovic confessed. 

It took Radović two months to be able to walk again without a limp.

According to an independent report compiled by forensic specialist Đorđe Alempijević, 25 people, some of them minors, were severely beaten that night.

"The injuries are not the result of isolated incidents or necessary police self-defense. They testify to a clear, organized, and systematic pattern of punitive police brutality and torture," the report says.

The Ministry of Interior did not respond to questions regarding the protest in Valjevo and the report on police violence.

"My first reaction was anger, anger at people capable of such cruelty," Radovic said. "But then I realized I can't back down from this. I have to fight for justice and the truth."