PLEA OF NOT GUILTY: Štimac Heard over Alleged Call for Violent Change of Constitutional Order!

Following the hearing of Vladimir Štimac, his lawyers, Vladimir Terzić and Nikola Lakić, addressed the crowd gathered in front of the Palace of Justice, again pointing out a series of omissions and illogicalities in the case of the detained former basketball player. They revealed that the prosecutor had announced at the beginning of the hearing that she would seek detention for Štimac regardless of what he stated.

“The appeal we submitted yesterday at 5 PM has still not been delivered by the police, who were obliged to deliver it immediately,” said lawyer Nikola Lakić in front of the Palace of Justice after today’s hearing of Vladimir Štimac at the prosecutor’s office.

“We just spoke with colleagues, and everyone is utterly shocked,” added Lakić, to which his colleague, also Štimac’s defense counsel, Vladimir Terzić, added.

“None of the colleagues can believe it, we are literally consulting; a colleague from the Executive Board of the Serbian Bar Association was here, and no one has ever heard of that kind of procedure by either the court or the police. We thought the court made a mistake because we were under the impression that the police officer, the inspector who told us he was leaving in five minutes, had forwarded the appeal. Someone simply hid it, the appeal disappeared en route from SIV-1 to this building (Palace of Justice). First, Vladimir Štimac was kidnapped, and then his appeal was kidnapped. And now the prosecutor is trying to kidnap him again, him who has already been kidnapped,” said lawyer Terzić, adding that the prosecutor immediately announced at the start of the hearing that she would seek detention for Štimac, regardless of his testimony.

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade Issued a Statement

Immediately after the conclusion of Štimac’s hearing, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade issued a statement announcing that it had requested his detention.

“Vladimir Štimac was heard at the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade on the grounds of suspicion that on November 2, 2025, in the afternoon and evening hours in Nikola Pašić Square in the immediate vicinity of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, he called for a violent change of the constitutional order and incited participants of an unannounced gathering to attack participants of another announced gathering, which was being held in Pioneer Park, as well as police officers, and to violently overthrow the holders of the highest state functions, the statement said.

The suspect denied committing the crime during the hearing, the prosecutor’s office announced.

“Following the hearing, the prosecutor’s office proposed to the pre-trial judge of the Higher Court in Belgrade to order detention for Vladimir Š. to prevent him from repeating the criminal offense in a short period of time,” they stated.

Štimac is charged with the criminal offense of Calling for the Violent Change of the Constitutional Order.

“There are grounds for suspicion that on November 2, in front of the gathered citizens who recorded him and later published it on social networks, he called on other citizens to all come in front of the National Assembly Building, to ‘call tractors to come from all sides,’ to ‘f**k everything,’ calling the police officers who were in front of the National Assembly Building – criminals, who were sent there by Vučić to ‘push the people who are seeking justice’ and who ‘do not even have identification numbers’,” the statement said.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the suspect also continuously cursed police members and participants of the other gathering in the recorded posts, and repeated the call to citizens “Come out to the streets,” attempting to create emotional tension among the citizens, claiming that the police were attacking Dijana Hrka, the mother of the young man who died on November 1, 2024, when a canopy fell at the Novi Sad Railway Station, and who is on a hunger strike.

“After spotting a police officer securing the National Assembly with a rifle on his chest, V.Š. shouted at him: ‘Hey, put the rifle away.’ All the above led to citizens gathering in front of the National Assembly Building, who, motivated by V.Š.’s calls, attacked police officers and participants of the other gathering, throwing pyrotechnics, glass bottles, and stones at them, as a result of which one police officer sustained a serious bodily injury in the lower leg area,” the prosecutor’s office stated.

On the same occasion, they added, a fire was caused to the tent used by the participants of the other gathering.