Policeman's Plea Bargain Angers Serbia's Waterfront Protesters

Serbia's "Let's not drown Belgrade" civic movement - which was set up to oppose the Belgrade Waterfront construction project - has condemned the decision to allow a policeman to reach a plea bargain with the prosecution over responsibility for controversial demolitions in the city's Savamala district.

The nocturnal demolition work, carried out to make way for the riverside development, angered many people in the capital who accused police of standing by as masked demolition workers moved in and even confiscated the phones of passers-by who wanted the report what was going on.

"It is completely nonsensical to blame one policeman, who happened to have been the shift commander on the night and took orders from a higher level," Radomir Lazovic, from "Let's not drown Belgrade," told BIRN.

He said the Mayor of Belgrade Sinisa Mali, Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, and the heads of police should be held accountable for the events, but the authorities were not willing to look into the true organisers of the incident.

The demolitions in the Savamala district happened at night between April 24 and 25 in 2016, while public attention was occupied by the counting of votes from that day's parliamentary election.

Masked men driving diggers demolished three buildings in Hercegovacka Street, in the area where the Belgrade Waterfront project was under construction.

Residents and workers in the street called the police for help, but, according to a report by Serbia's then Ombudsman, the police declined to take action.

On Tuesday, police officer Goran Stamenkovic, the shift commander at the police command and operations centre during the incident, reached an agreement with the prosecution to receive a suspended sentence for his...