Opposition MP beaten, police ignored assault

Pedja Mitrovic, MP for the Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) told N1 that he recorded the thugs who had been throwing firecrackers, flares and other things at the protesters from behind a police cordon. He added that the thugs came up to him and ordered him to delete the video which he refused and told them that he is an MP. “They rushed me, 7-8 of them with face masks and iron bars. They pushed me up against the fence around the ministry and hit me on the head and body. I was bleeding and had to have stitches,” he said.

Mitrovic said he broke free and ran down the street to try to get away. “What astonished me was the fact that Gendarmerie troopers and several police patrols walked past me. They saw I was bleeding and running from the hooligans but none of them stopped to see if I needed help. It’s completely clear that we saw a coalition of hooligans, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and parts of the police which was intended to suppress civil dissatisfaction and perpetrate violence against the public,” he said.

He added that the thugs who used the police cordon as a shield were not arrested but that peaceful protesters were. According to Mitrovic, the security cameras on the Foreign Ministry building recorded the thugs assaulting him.