Director Filipović Beaten in Belgrade
Opposition condemns attack and demands urgent investigation, saying violence in Serbia is spiraling out of control.
Opposition condemns attack and demands urgent investigation, saying violence in Serbia is spiraling out of control.
Director and professor Stevan Filipović was beaten on Wednesday evening in the center of Belgrade. In a video posted on Instagram, the 45-year-old Filipović said he was attacked by "hired thugs of the ruling party" whom he had photographed while they were demolishing a protected building at the corner of Makedonska and Nušićeva streets.
According to his account, the attackers knocked him to the ground, kicked him, and then continued to hit him with a metal chair. "I lost consciousness. People standing nearby helped me and gave me a phone to record. Look, I have a cut on my leg, a hematoma on my hip, a concussion-I don't need 14 days to move. And this on my lip," Filipović described his injuries, showing a bloody lip. Doctors ordered him to rest for 14 days.
Filipović detailed the sequence of events. "A group of hired thugs of the ruling party was demolishing a protected building, a cultural and historical monument. I photographed some of them. Within minutes, a man weighing about a hundred kilograms in a gray T-shirt approached me, took my phone, and then five more came and, in front of cameras and 15 people... they knocked me to the ground," he recounted.
He stressed that the attackers showed no restraint. "Criminals in the service of the regime no longer hesitate to beat a man with fists, feet, and a metal chair in front of 15 witnesses and multiple surveillance cameras. The only statistical anomaly is that I survived, despite the injuries I sustained," Filipović wrote on Instagram.
The attack sparked strong reactions from opposition parties. Mila Popović, president of the Belgrade board of the Party of Freedom and Justice and a member of parliament, demanded that police immediately arrest all attackers. She said the attack confirms that violence has "spiraled out of control" and that Serbia is entering a "very dangerous period."
"The fact that a professor was beaten in the middle of the capital by a group of thugs, whom he claims are 'thugs,' shows how close we are to sinking into a spiral of vendettas and violence, because the current practice of the judiciary and police has shown that anyone who supports the government and commits violence is amnestied in advance," Popović stated.
Jovana Karaulić, president of the Democratic Party's committee for culture, said the attack was an expected consequence of a political system that builds "Aleksandar Vučić's mafia regime." "These are the same people who, when they have a day off from Ćacilend or no task at Serbian Progressive Party rallies, intimidate, beat, and snatch phones from people on the streets. Aleksandar Vučić bears direct responsibility for organized violence against people who refuse to stay silent in the face of state plunder," Karaulić said.
Aleksandar Marton, spokesperson for the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, condemned the "fascist attack" and demanded that the Ministry of Interior and the competent prosecutor's office conduct an urgent and priority investigation, locate all five attackers, and fully uncover the background of the attack. He said the attack testifies to "a complete collapse of security and the introduction of naked terror against dissenters."
The Free Citizens' Movement said the attack on Filipović is "an attack on all free-thinking people" and called on institutions to protect citizens and ensure the rule of law.
Stevan Filipović, a member of the European Film Academy and one of the most prominent Serbian directors of the middle generation, is known for socially engaged films such as "Šišanje" (2010) and "Pored mene" (2015), which won the main award at the Pula Film Festival. For years, he has been a public critic of the government and a human rights activist, which has made him a frequent target of attacks in pro-government media.
"The mafia's message is clear. But it won't work. There is no fear. There is only determination," Filipović said, adding: "Until victory." This attack came just a few weeks after writer Vladimir Arsenijević, another activist-oriented cultural figure, was beaten during the commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide anniversary.
