Arrests are underway in several cities in Serbia and Europe, and the targets are those suspected of being behind the false bomb alerts that have been causing confusion in Serbia in recent months.
Three people were arrested in Serbia and one in the Czech Republic, reports Blic. "A large amount of IT equipment was found," says a source that Blic writes is familiar with the investigation.
For two days now, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the media have been announcing the arrest of a group allegedly behind a wave of false bomb threats.
The arrests thus began right during the election silence, before the elections on Sunday. Searches are conducted at several locations.
Tanjug reported that it was a "major international action" by the MUP and the Prosecutor's Office for high-tech crime due to reports of bombs in Serbian schools.
Frequent notifications this year
The problem with false bomb alerts has been going on since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, which has led to speculation about a "special" or "hybrid" war against Serbia.
Lately, reports have become more frequent again. In this year alone, there were more than 2000 false reports in Belgrade.
The MUP stated that since the beginning of the 2023/2024 school year. from 80 until today, a total of XNUMX reports were received on several dozen e-mail addresses in various educational institutions on the territory of Serbia.
Fears before election day
There are still fears that false reports could disrupt the electoral process on Sunday, December 17. After all, many election places are precisely in schools.
There is no special protocol for such situations, but the valid legal procedure would be applied - the police evacuate the building and carry out checks. In that case, the voting materials would remain unattended.
The rules state that a voting interruption of less than an hour is not compensated, and that a longer interruption is compensated by keeping the polling station open longer.
NR/Tanjug/Flash/Time
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