Gendarme kills assailant in embassy knife attack
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A gendarme guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade killed an assailant who attacked him with two knives. Interior Minister Ivica Dačić declared the incident a terrorist act and raised the national alert level, while the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office ruled the officer’s use of his service weapon a justified act of self-defense.
The security incident follows a sudden tightening of bureaucratic oversight. Chief Prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac has issued a mandatory instruction for all prosecutor’s offices to submit to internal control, starting with the Belgrade division. Simultaneously, investigators in Novi Sad arrested the head of the city’s economy department over an alleged 83-million-dinar budget shortfall, and state auditors issued a negative assessment of Belgrade’s own books, questioning the whereabouts of city land valued at over five billion euros.
These security and financial tremors arrive during a delicate transition of power. As the Student List prepares to form a government following its election victory, the outgoing administration remains under scrutiny for its final acts in office. Meanwhile, the newspaper Nova has announced its new management plans to shut the title down, a move the editorial team describes as a final strike against the country's remaining independent media.