Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić faces criminal charges of incitement to violence, filed by a civil society organisation after a driver crashed into a student protest in Belgrade, according to Euractiv.
On Thursday, a car drove into a crowd gathered to commemorate the victims of the Novi Sad incident and hit a female student. She rolled on the bonnet and then the roof before falling to the ground.
Security tried to stop the driver from leaving the scene, but he escaped. The civil movement Go-Change said it had filed a criminal complaint against Vučić for repeatedly downplaying the responsibility of drivers ramming their cars into crowds of demonstrators. The lack of action directly encouraged violence against students peacefully expressing their opinion, Go-Change emphasised.
Students across Serbia have been staging protests and blocking traffic for weeks, demanding responsibility for the collapse of a canopy at the newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad, where 15 people perished and two others were severely wounded.
On 1 December, Vučić issued a statement after a similar hit-and-run, questioning the need to prosecute and arrest drivers. He stated that the driver was just “going his way.”
Those who claim that such drivers should be arrested should splash their faces with cold water.
Go-Change declared that such statements “must not go unpunished.” The EU Delegation in Serbia also reacted to the incident, calling for a swift investigation.
Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić said the suspected driver was found within 15 minutes of the incident. He had previously been convicted seven times for previous offences.
