\u017dmiri\u0107\u2019s record in the Unit for the Protection of Certain Persons and Facilities (JZO) has been marred by serious misconduct and unlawful actions, including the unnecessary and excessive use of force against students and citizens during protests. Many of these incidents involved humiliating beatings and unlawful detentions of peaceful demonstrators.<\/p>\n
During the August protests, \u017dmiri\u0107 was filmed dragging a person by the hair while making an arrest, even though the individual offered no resistance. Such conduct amounts to the criminal offence of torture and abuse, punishable by up to ten years in prison. \u017dmiri\u0107 was also among the officers, alongside Marko Kri\u010dak, who took several students into the Government garage. Student Nikolina Sin\u0111eli\u0107 later stated that \u017dmiri\u0107 was one of the most brutal members of that group and filed a criminal complaint against him, along with Kri\u010dak.<\/p>\n
It is especially concerning that \u017dmiri\u0107 has a rose tattoo on his neck\u2014a symbol once associated with loyalty to Milorad Ulemek Legija, sentenced to 40 years in prison for the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran \u0110in\u0111i\u0107, Serbia\u2019s first democratically elected head of government. This sends a message utterly incompatible with democratic values and the rule of law.<\/p>\n
Rather than being promoted, \u017dmiri\u0107 should be subject to serious disciplinary and criminal review for his previous actions.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Interior continues to exploit frequent, non-transparent changes to its Rulebook on Job Classification to bypass legal procedures for appointing senior officers. The commander of the SAJ should be selected through a public competition, ensuring transparency and trust in the process, and confirming that all candidates meet the necessary professional and ethical standards.<\/p>\n
With about 300 members, the SAJ is among Serbia\u2019s most capable and specialised police units, trained for rapid anti-terrorist interventions and high-risk arrests. In a political climate where the government brands critics and independent media as \u201cterrorists,\u201d this appointment paves the way for further abuse of the unit against peaceful citizens who protest, speak out, or demand accountability.<\/p>\n
Integrity Network, Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Integrity Network strongly condemns the appointment of Igor \u017dmiri\u0107 as commander of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ), warning that this move turns one of Serbia\u2019s elite police formations into the President\u2019s personal guard, rather than a service for all citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":35029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7415],"tags":[11447,165],"vest_saopstenje":[11319],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-35480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bscp","tag-mreza-integriteta","tag-saopstenje","vest_saopstenje-saopstenje-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35481,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35480\/revisions\/35481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35480"},{"taxonomy":"vest_saopstenje","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vest_saopstenje?post=35480"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=35480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}