Serbia introduced and passed its first hate crime law by adopting a general penalty enhancement provision that allows the judge to consider it an aggravating circumstance when the crime is “is based on hatred for another person’s race, religion, national or ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Official figures record 28 hate crimes motivated by racism and xenophobia. Twelve assaults were committed, one of which was attempted murder. Ten were graffiti cases and six were cases of threats.
Official figures record three cases of verbal threats against Roma.
Official figures record one case of cemetery desecration, resulting in destruction of 39 tombstones.
Official figures record three cases of threats to Muslims – two verbal and one anonymous.
Serbia reported a case in which the Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah’s Witnesses was damaged and the perpetrators were apprehended and convicted, with a suspended sentence, and ordered to pay for the damage.
The Regional Centre for Minorities reported one case of physical assault against two students by a group.
The European Roma Rights Centre and the Regional Centre for Minorities reported an assault carried out by a group against a group of Roma people, also involving graffiti on the container they were living in.
The Regional Centre for Minorities reported a further four cases of graffiti on property, including one on a school attended mainly by Roma children, one on a container inhabited by a Roma family, one on a monument to a Roma musician and one on a Roma family’s house; and two physical assaults including one against Roma children.
LABRIS and the Gay Straight Alliance reported four cases of physical assault, three of which were carried out by a group and two of which resulted in serious injury. The victims were gay men and one lesbian woman.
ODIHR observes that Serbia has not reported on hate crimes separately from cases of hate speech.