The “sound cannon” case is back in the public eye, just as it was in March last year, following a rally by blockading students. This time, the case has been “revived” by the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, which has begun investigating it under suspicion that the incident was planned in advance to cause fear, panic, and unrest, with the ultimate goal, as suspected by the prosecution, of violently overthrowing the constitutional order.
What remains undisputed by anyone is that on 15 March 2025, during a rally that stretched from the National Assembly to Slavija Square, something occurred among those gathered in Kralja Milana Street during a 15-minute silence held in honour of those killed in the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse. As for what exactly happened, several interpretations exist, depending on which political wing in Serbia one currently belongs to.
Dačić: Ministry of Internal Affairs did not use sonic weapons
Footage that spread across the media and social networks shows the crowd standing on the roadway when, at one point, the gathered mass of people “splits” into two sections. In a “stampede”, one part flees towards one pavement and the other towards the opposite side, leaving the roadway largely empty.
Immediately after the event, certain media outlets and analysts (because of which military analyst Aleksandar Radić was recently questioned), as well as the social media account of the FON (Faculty of Organizational Sciences) students, reported that the police had used a so-called sound cannon, which caused panic among the crowd.
On the other hand, the Minister of Interior, Ivica Dačić, told NIN at the time that the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) had not used sonic weapons, stating that “the police did not even draw their batons” and that “the MUP does not use any prohibited means.” Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić also spoke out at the time, claiming that the sound cannon story was fabricated, and called on the American FBI and the Russian FSB to investigate whether a sonic weapon had been deployed.
Later, the Russian FSB, as published on the website of the Security Intelligence Agency (BIA), determined that sonic weapons possessed by Serbian security forces were not used at the protest. They stated that “there are public indications of a staged provocation involving a specially prepared group of people and the use of smartphones to synchronise movements while imitating the effect of an acoustic cannon…”
Shortly after the incident, media reports emerged stating that several people had sought medical attention due to what they experienced during the alleged use of the sound cannon.
Three days after the rally, the First Basic Prosecutor’s Office announced that a sound cannon had not been used, concluding this based on reports from the MUP, the Ministries of Defence and Health, and the BIA. They added that they were continuing their investigation to determine what had caused the panic among the participants.
Fifteen months after the incident at the protest, the “sound cannon” case is once again the focus of attention thanks to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office (VJT) in Belgrade. The VJT announced that during a pre-investigation procedure regarding the death of M. Ž. and the circumstances under which pyrotechnics caught fire on the fifth floor of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade on 26 March, “information was obtained indicating grounds for suspicion that other criminal offences prosecuted ex officio have been committed, which are unrelated to the proceedings in question.”
During a search of the Faculty of Philosophy on 27 March 2026, documentation belonging to the plenums of several faculties was temporarily seized. Among it, an official record of a meeting of the Students in Blockade organisation – the Umbrella Security Working Group (KRBG) – held on 22 January 2025 was found, according to the VJT.
VJT: Four groups of people to be prosecuted
“At that meeting, among other things, the topic of discussion was the ‘sound cannon’, and it was stated at the meeting that a sound cannon would receive a ‘substantial response from Brussels’, as well as that ‘in China, a practiced solution was to move out of the way when they see a sound cannon.’ It is suspected that the meeting participants and other unidentified persons subsequently took actions to carry out a simulation of the use of a ‘sound cannon’ by state authorities at a protest planned for 15 March 2025 in Belgrade. This was allegedly done so that authorities would be accused of using a ‘sound cannon’ in both domestic and international public spheres, all with the aim of creating public panic and fear among citizens, thereby triggering unrest that would lead to a violent change of the constitutional order and endanger state security,” the VJT stated.
The prosecution has ordered the police to gather information on this case and identify the individuals involved. This includes “all persons who participated in executing the adopted proposal to simulate the use of a sound cannon at the protest in Slavija held on 15 March 2025; who participated in such organisation; how roles were divided; who designated the area where the use of the sound cannon was allegedly to be staged; why the stewards’ high-visibility vests were removed; who ordered it; what real danger existed for the stewards to remove their vests and signal danger to other protest participants, indicating a need to clear the gathering site on the street; and who, and in what manner, caused protest participants to flee from the streets to the pavements and disperse, abandoning the protest.”
The prosecution has also requested that “interviews be conducted with all persons who publicly claimed that a ‘sound cannon’ was used against protest participants on 15 March 2025 in Belgrade, and to ‘determine who organised the medical examinations of protest participants for alleged consequences of the “sound cannon”.'” Additionally, it has requested the case files regarding the incident from the Basic Prosecutor’s Office.
VJT Prosecutor Miodrag Marković stated that four groups of people would be prosecuted: the organisers, the executors, those who provided media support, and those who responded to mass medical examinations for protest participants two or three days later.
Reaction from the blockading students
The blockading students reacted to the VJT statement. In a statement released on social media, they confirmed that the document cited by the VJT was created two months before the 15 March protest. However, they maintained it was material from a meeting concerning a protest at the Autokomanda interchange, during which, as they state, they considered various security risks and potential forms of police intervention during an all-day blockade of that junction.
“In that context, sound cannons, water cannons, tear gas, and other means of coercion were mentioned as potential risks. Considering scenarios of repression is solely proof of a responsible approach to the safety of protest participants. This is what we did before every protest, unlike the competent authorities and the government… Students will not agree to be labeled as culprits because, whilst preparing peaceful protests, they considered the risks to which participants might be exposed. If mentioning the possible use of force has become evidence of guilt, then the problem is much larger than a single set of minutes,” they stated. They further added that the VJT’s attempt to find evidence of a “pre-planned simulation of a sound cannon” is actually “a lie and a diversion from the fundamental question: what happened on 15 March and what caused the chaos among the gathered citizens?”
Political actors have also spoken out on the case once again. Those in power claim they have said from the beginning that the incident was staged rather than an attack on demonstrators, while the opposition has accused the prosecution of political interference in the matter.
The Speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, summarised the claims from the ruling ranks, stating that the sound cannon case – planned at least a month and a half before the rally at Slavija on 15 March – had three goals: the further dehumanisation of the authorities in Serbia, provoking civil conflict, and maximizing foreign pressure on Serbia.
The President of Serbia reiterated claims regarding the sound cannon, stating that “everyone in the security sector knows it is a lie.” This time, he called on the FBI (which he noted did not participate in the analysis initially due to their procedures), as well as everyone in the European services, to analyse the case.
(NIN, 25.06.2026)