The Serbian police on Monday arrested two youths who are alleged to have carried a mock-up of a gallows at last Saturday’s civic protest in Belgrade.

The two youths, one of them a minor, were questioned at the central police station in the Serbian capital.  

Earlier, Internal Affairs Ministry State Secretary Biljana Popovic Ivkovic was reported to have claimed that the two young men were sympathisers of the opposition Dveri movement which denied that allegation in a statement.

The Dveri statement said the whole thing is “a spin from the regime kitchen”. It said that pictures of the youths with the gallows wearing ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) T-shirts appeared on social networks right after the protest, adding that the names of the two arrested youths had not been released by the authorities.  

The opposition Alliance for Serbia distanced itself from them saying that their performance was wrong and does not reflect the ideas behind the protests. It added that the mock-up of the gallows made out of plastic water pipes had caused “a hysterical reactions from the authorities” and some media and a police search.