Image used for representation only.
Belgrade: Serbian prosecutors said Friday that eight officers had been arrested on suspicion of torturing a man who died in custody two years ago after being detained in an unsolved missing toddler case that shocked the country.
A two-year-old girl went missing in March 2024 in the eastern town of Bor. Police said she had been killed in a hit-and-run and arrested two suspects, but her body has never been found and the murder case remains in pre-trial proceedings.
In early April 2024, the brother of one suspect was detained on suspicion of helping conceal the body but died in police custody.
Police said the 40-year-old had died "after falling ill", but independent media reported forensic findings suggested he had been beaten to death.
The eight officers arrested Friday are suspected of "inflicting grievous bodily harm resulting in death, as well as abuse and torture", prosecutors said in a statement.
Although their arrests had been ordered in the past, prosecutors said "the interior ministry's internal affairs unit had failed to act".
The arrests come amid reforms demanded by the student-led movement following its historic October 25 election victory, ending 14 years of rule by the right-wing Serbian Progressive Party.
Following the vote, Serbia's chief public prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac said that "political and institutional obstruction" of the prosecutors' work had been removed.
Since the election, several senior police officers have been arrested on various charges, while the country's intelligence chief faces questioning over alleged electoral interference.
