Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić said on Friday that police detained three foreign nationals during anti-government protests this week, including a Croatian citizen accused of assaulting a gendarmerie officer in Belgrade.
Dačić named the man as Bruno Horvat, who he said entered Serbia earlier that day via the Šid border crossing and attacked an officer at around 11:30 p.m. at the corner of Nemanjina and Resavska streets. The other detainees were from Slovenia and Italy, he added.
“What is a Croatian citizen doing at a protest in Serbia? And what if some Serb went to Zagreb and attacked the police there?” Dačić told reporters, according to the N1 news portal.
According to police data, 75 officers were injured in the latest clashes, bringing the total over the past three days to 121, nine of them seriously. Authorities said 114 people were detained, 34 criminal charges and 28 misdemeanour charges were filed, and 11 traffic offences were recorded.
Dačić said demonstrators tried to break through police cordons and threw stones, bricks, water-filled bottles, fireworks, wooden sticks and batons. Several police vehicles were damaged and more than 70 pieces of protective equipment destroyed, he added.
“Police work in the interest of the state,” Dačić said. “Police officers are the symbol of the state; they attack no one, but protect public order and peace.” He urged citizens to obey the law and avoid violence.