Following the announcement by the Higher Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office that, during the preliminary investigation into the death of a student at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, evidence was obtained regarding the March 15 protest in which, as they stated, students had \u201ccarried out a simulation of the use of a sound cannon by state authorities,\u201d the students reacted sharply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement issued by the Students in Blockade is reproduced in full below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The latest attempt by the Higher Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office to find evidence in student meetings for a pre-planned \u2018sound cannon simulation\u2019 represents yet another falsehood and a distraction from the essential question: what happened on March 15 and what caused the chaos among the gathered citizens.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The document cited by the Prosecutor\u2019s Office was created two months before the March 15 protest, at a time when that gathering had not yet been planned. It was material from a meeting concerning the protest at Autokomanda, during which various security risks and possible forms of police intervention against peaceful citizens and students spending 24 hours at Autokomanda were discussed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 evidence of a responsible approach to the safety of protest participants. That is what we did before every protest, unlike the competent authorities and the government.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is particularly absurd to claim that mentioning possible reactions from European institutions or the consequences of a potential use of a sound cannon constitutes evidence of a conspiracy. On the contrary, it clearly shows that the sound cannon was viewed exclusively as an example of excessive force by state authorities, since it had been known since 2022 that the state possessed such prohibited weapons, and in the context of the possible political consequences of their use.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of answering the questions citizens have been asking for more than a year, the Prosecutor\u2019s Office is attempting to portray discussions about the possible use of coercive measures as evidence that such events were staged.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We remind the public that following the events of March 15, numerous inquiries were launched, citizens were questioned, and institutions themselves acknowledged that an unusual event occurred, causing mass panic, running, and the sudden dispersal of people in Kralja Milana Street, followed by health problems.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Students will not accept being declared guilty simply because, while preparing peaceful protests, they considered risks to which participants might be exposed. If discussing the possible use of force has become evidence of guilt, then the problem is far greater than a single set of meeting minutes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n