Dean says police called over non-students in his office

Monday’s police intervention resulted in a number of injuries, including a girl who was one of the bicycle riders who went to Strasbourg. That young woman and four other people were hospitalized after being beaten by the police. Social media posts alleged that some of the police were brought in from other cities and neighboring Bosnia’s Republika Srpska. Those rumors were not confirmed. Internal Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic said later that the police only intervened to repel attacks on their cordon.

Drid said that as dean he has the right to call in the police and denied that his decision violated the autonomy of the university. Under Serbian law the police can be called in to investigate serious crimes or if lives are in danger.

“It’s unbelievable how they abuse that. The autonomy of the university means that we as professors have the autonomy to organize our classes, curricula, exams and not do anything political,” he said and added that there was no need to call in the police during the first 3 months of the student protests because they were peaceful with students and staff entering the building. “Someone came in with serious amounts of money 100 days into the protest and several professors demanded radicalization, the dismissal of (President Aleksandar) Vucic and I warned that I would not allow political activities at the school,” said.

Drid claimed that his knee was dislocated when he was attacked by the crowd but that several students, who he said were normal, calmed the situation and helped him to the ambulance. Drid’s biography says that he teaches martial arts and is a black belt in judo.