Vučić regime accuses victims of sonic weapon attack of staging the incident

The authorities led by Aleksandar Vučić last week announced the criminal prosecution of thousands of citizens in connection with the incident at the mass protest rally in Belgrade on 15 March 2025 – the use of a sonic weapon against demonstrators. This is probably the most shocking move by the Vučić regime since it came to power 14 years ago, as it shifts the blame onto the victims of the sonic weapon attack, accusing them of organising a simulation of the incident.

Serbian prosecutors have opened an investigation claiming that students planned to simulate the use of a “sonic cannon” during the huge Belgrade protest of 15 March 2025. This is outrageous: instead of identifying who ordered and used that banned acoustic weapon, the authorities… pic.twitter.com/zoG5NB4E7p
— European Democrats (@democrats_eu) June 23, 2026

For now, however, it appears that the main objective of the campaign is political – to portray the student movement as terrorist, intimidate political opponents, complicate their daily lives and suppress affairs that are uncomfortable for the authorities – rather than the actual criminal prosecution of citizens, despite such announcements.

Accusations

While citizens gathered at the 15 March protest were paying silent tribute to the victims of the collapse of the concrete canopy at Novi Sad railway station, a loud sound suddenly rang out on Kralja Milana Street. Many of those affected described it as resembling the noise of an aeroplane, a missile or a car moving at very high speed. This caused the crowd to surge and split into two, but a stampede was fortunately avoided. Thousands of citizens later reported similar symptoms – dizziness, headache, nausea and ringing in the ears – which led the opposition-leaning public to conclude that the regime had used a sonic weapon against the demonstrators.

From the outset, the authorities have fiercely and persistently denied using a sonic weapon on the protesters (a case later dubbed the “sonic cannon affair”). They first claimed they did not possess LRAD 450XL sonic cannons at all, then admitted having them but said they were still unpacked in storage, and finally it emerged that the devices had been mounted on police vehicles that were present on the streets of Belgrade on 15 March. Despite this, the regime continued to deny their use at the rally.

The regime has now gone on the counter-offensive through the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, headed by Nenad Stefanović, who is known for his absolute loyalty to Vučić. On 19 June, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had launched a preliminary investigation, claiming that rebel students had staged the disruption of the silent tribute at the 15 March protest – in other words, that they had “organised a simulation” of the use of a sonic weapon (essentially a choreographed action) in order to accuse Serbian state bodies. According to the prosecution, the ultimate goal was to provoke riots that would lead to the violent overthrow of the constitutional order and the toppling of Vučić’s government.

The prosecutor’s office says it bases these allegations on documents from student plenums at several faculties, seized three months earlier during the investigation into the death of Milica Živković, a student at the Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy. The documents allegedly show that a “sonic cannon” was discussed at a meeting of the Students in Blockade organisation on 22 January 2025, where participants reportedly said that the use of such a device would provoke a strong reaction from Brussels. The prosecution claims that those present and other unidentified individuals then took steps to simulate the use of a “sound cannon” at the 15 March rally.

Students in Blockade deny the allegations, stating that they mentioned the “sound cannon” only while preparing for the 27 January protest (the 24-hour blockade of the Autokomanda junction), specifically when discussing possible security risks and forms of police intervention. They described the prosecution’s claims as “yet another lie and an attempt to divert attention from the essential question – what really happened on 15 March”.

The prosecutor’s office announced proceedings against four groups of people: the “organisers of the simulation” (plenum participants), the “executors” (alleged coordinators of crowd movement at the protest), those who provided media support (everyone who publicly spoke about a “sonic cannon” attack), and protesters who went en masse for medical examinations, whom the prosecution also considers “organised”. Among those potentially facing charges is former Serbian national volleyball player Marko Samardžić, who spent 21 days in hospital. He was in a life-threatening condition after the 15 March sonic weapon attack caused his pacemaker to react to a sudden pulse surge above 300 beats per minute, requiring eight defibrillator shocks.

Propaganda

The idea of a simulated sonic weapon attack was undoubtedly conceived in Vučić’s inner circle, with the prosecutor’s office merely carrying out his instructions. Although the claim is an unprecedented insult to the intelligence of Serbian citizens, many government supporters believe it after years of exposure to toxic propaganda and conspiracy theories. Legal experts point out that the probative value of the student plenum documents is zero, as they contain no mention of how the alleged criminal offence was committed and provide no basis for bringing charges.

This confirms that the entire case is being used primarily for propaganda purposes. All pro-government television stations gave extensive coverage to the preliminary investigation, defending the politically controlled prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor’s statement was the lead story in pro-government media on 19 June, while the public broadcaster RTS aired a scandalous “special programme” that evening featuring carefully selected regime supporters who endorsed the prosecution’s narrative. Viewers were not given the chance to hear arguments from representatives of the rebel students, independent experts or other voices offering a different perspective.

The following day, three pro-regime TV stations (Informer, Pink and Prva TV) broadcast a joint multi-hour programme with Vučić as the main guest. In that and other shows, participants insisted that Vučić had been “politically assassinated” on 15 March 2025, claiming the “simulation of the attack” was used to dehumanise the President. By portraying Vučić as “presented as an inhumane murderer who shot at his own people from behind”, regime representatives and propagandists sought to justify the actions of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Senior state officials joined the propaganda with equal zeal. Speaker of the Serbian Assembly Ana Brnabić stated that the aim of the “false claim” about the sonic cannon was to trigger a civil war. “The idea was to murder Aleksandar Vučić and his family and cause civil war in Serbia,” she said. Interior Minister Ivica Dačić went further, accusing the European Union of attempting to destabilise Serbia.

Objectives

At the heart of last week’s activities by the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, pro-government media and top officials are several political objectives. The campaign is aimed primarily at the domestic audience, but is also of interest to international actors, given the attention paid to the “sonic cannon” case by UN experts, the Council of Europe, the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights. A group of Serbian NGOs has called for an independent UN investigation.

The main goals are political rather than legal. The primary objective is to discredit the key political rival by demonising the rebel students as terrorists (the prosecutor’s office has requested information from the Counter-Terrorism Service regarding the four groups). The campaign also seeks to intimidate and disrupt the everyday lives of government opponents in order to deter them from further action. Targets include NGO members, lawyers handling the “sonic cannon” case, journalists and analysts whom the regime wishes to silence on inconvenient topics. Another goal is to cover up what actually happened on 15 March 2025.The campaign further serves to homogenise and mobilise the ruling party’s electorate. By convincing supporters that there was no sonic weapon attack and that the “blockaders” tried to overthrow the state, Vučić deepens societal divisions, heightens fear and hatred, and strengthens loyalty among his voters.

Consequences

As part of the preliminary proceedings, police have summoned several public figures for questioning over their statements that the authorities used a sonic weapon on 15 March. Among them are military analyst Aleksandar Radić, lawyer and vice-president of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina Aleksandar Olenik, and Dejan Zlatanović, editor-in-chief of the Srbin.info website.

While it cannot be ruled out that the regime has more dangerous aims and that announced prosecutions could lead to arrests and intensified repression, this seems unlikely. Mass arrests would probably reduce public support for the authorities, whereas a media-focused intimidation campaign brings only benefits.

An indirect consequence of the new campaign was the destruction of the car belonging to David Gruhonjić, son of the journalist and university professor Dinko Gruhonjić – a long-time target of regime attacks. The incident occurred a day after the prosecutor’s statement, while David Gruhonjić, who lives in Zagreb, was visiting family in Novi Sad. Given that three masked individuals severely damaged the vehicle, the attack was certainly organised by elements linked to government structures. The only question is whether the order came from the very top or from a lower level where a local official felt emboldened enough to strike at Gruhonjić, who has frequently been subjected to unsanctioned attacks and death threats.

Caption: Screenshot from a video of the 15 March 2025 protest, seconds before the person filming was impacted by the sound cannon and the image collapsed [EUalive]