Serbian Interior Ministry Accuses Military Analyst Over ‘Sound Cannon’ Claim

Serbian Interior Ministry Accuses Military Analyst Over ‘Sound Cannon’ Claim A criminal complaint against military analyst Aleksandar Radic was filed on Friday by Serbia’s Interior Ministry on the request of the Higher Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade over his claims that a sonic weapon was probably used against protesters at a huge rally on March 15 last year. Radic is suspected of two crimes: preparing an offence against the constitutional order and security of Serbia, and disclosure of classified information. He is suspected specifically of presenting “false claims regarding the alleged use of a ‘sound cannon’ by state authorities” during a major anti-government protest on March 15, 2025. A prosecution statement added that it is also suspected that, by “exploiting his contacts with unidentified persons employed by state authorities, [he] collected information classified at various levels of secrecy”. After his apartment and office were raided in June, Radic left the country. The prosecution now requests an order for his detention and the issue of an arrest warrant. The prosecution statement quoted Radic’s communication with journalists from N1 television, the state broadcaster RTS, Beta news agency, and the weekly Nedeljnik, in which he was asked about his opinion of the incident at the protest that day. “Subsequently … the N1 news portal published an article … containing A.R.’s statement alleging the use of a ‘sound cannon’. According to the prosecution, this was the first media claim that a sound cannon had been used during the March 15, 2025 protest in Belgrade,” it stated. It noted that Radic’s mobile phone and other electronic devices underwent forensic examination, after which “it was determined that there are grounds for suspicion that the suspect committed the aforementioned criminal offences”. The prosecution statement also cited Radic’s communication with Zdravko Ponos, the head of the opposition Serbia Centre party, SRCE,who was questioned on July 1 over his claims that a sound cannon was used. It added that Radic chatted with Russian citizen, named as V.O., and with a Serbian Army lieutenant colonel and pilot, named as D.B., about the same topic. The prosecution statement noted also that Radic also communicated with students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts who were interested in what kind of weapon was used. The prosecution statement contains direct quotes from students who spoke with Radic. The Journalists’ Association of Serbia, UNS, condemned the prosecution’s statement because it revealed the identities of all the journalists who “in the course of their professional work, had legitimately contacted a source of information [Radic]”. UNS said that it considers this “an act of intimidation”. The rally on March 15, 2025 was the biggest protest ever held in Serbia, attracting around 300,000 people, according to the NGO Archive of Public Gatherings. It was organised by students calling for accountability over the deaths of 16 people after a concrete canopy collapsed at Novi Sad railway station several months earlier. During a silent vigil for the dead, the crowd suddenly dispersed in a brief stampede. Some of them later told BIRN that, just before the stampede started, they heard a noise that they variously described as “unnatural”, “like from a movie”, or like a jet plane. Others described a “kind of low howling sound”. The Serbian authorities denied that any kind of sonic weapon was used at the protest. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic first denied that police even have any such acoustic device, but later admitted they have two Long-Range Acoustic Devices, but that they hadn’t been used. The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office then launched an investigation on the suspicion that “simulation of the use of a ‘sound cannon’ was planned and carried out at the end of the protest” in order to pin the blame on state authorities. A group of 14 prominent Serbian NGOs responded that the judiciary “succumbed to political pressure and transformed the investigation into the political persecution of victims and those who supported them”.