ARRESTS AND HARASSMENT

Sporadic arrests occurred throughout the demonstrations, but there were two main periods when waves of arrests took place. The first mass arrests occurred between November 26 and December 6, when an estimated twenty-four people were taken into custody. All of them were found guilty of misdemeanors - disturbing the public peace (article 12 of theLaw on Public Peace) or using firearms in public (article 7) - and received sentences ranging from seven to thirty days in prison. Branomir Ple_e, a lawyer with the Humanitarian Law Center, monitored some of their trials. He told Human Rights Watch/Helsinki that, "all of the defendants experienced some form of abuse, especially verbal abuse. [Dejan] Bulatovi_ was the only serious case."30 (See section on police violence.) In addition to physical and verbal mistreatment, the defendants suffered a number of other abuses that cast serious doubt on the impartiality of the state's investigation. According to Ple_e, those who did not admit to their crimes were taken back to the scene of the demonstrations and photographed with stones in their hands at the spot where they had allegedly attacked a government building. The photographs submitted to the court were taken at night with no people present, even though the alleged stone-throwing had taken place at a busy demonstration during the day. After their release from prison for misdemeanor offenses, seven people were further charged with criminal offenses, either under article 230 of Serbia's criminal code (participating in a group committing violence) or article 176 (damaging property). Their cases are still under investigation.

The second wave of arrests took place between February 2-4, when approximately thirty people were arrested, according to the Humanitarian Law Center, on charges ranging from disturbing the peace to damaging property. Most of these people received fines, although one was imprisoned for fifteen days. Human Rights Watch/Helsinki does not have enough information to comment on whether these arrests were based on well-founded charges but has serious concerns about the use of violence against the defendants while they were in detention. Three of the defendants told the Humanitarian Law Center that they had been physically abused either on the street or while being taken to the police station. All of them were threatened in the police stations and pressured to confess.

Arrests allegedly also took place in some other Serbian towns, although Human Rights Watch/Helsinki did not confirm the claims. According to Amnesty International, on January 23, six officials of the Zajedno coalition, Srdjan Nedeljkovi_, Milan Kaljevi_, Vlajko Stoj...i_, Milenko Djuki_, Mane Zatezalo and Radi_a Savi_, were arrested in Smederevo and held for three hours after they attempted to block traffic. Also in Jagodina a local opposition official, Dragan Nikoli_, was reportedly arrested.31 According to a journalist in Poñarevac, Milorad Tadi_, one local activist of the Democratic Party was photographed during a Zajedno demonstration in the middle of December in Poñarevac. The police subsequently went to his home, took him six kilometers outside of the city and beat him.32