Serbia’s police raid civil society groups over USAID funding

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This article was published 25/02/2025 (287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s police raided the offices of at least four civil society organizations on Tuesday as part of a probe into allegations of abuse of U.S. Agency for International Development funds in the Balkan country.

This comes after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump froze foreign funding for 90 days in January and has since taken steps to dismantle the aid agency, firing over a thousand workers.

State prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic said Serbia has asked the U.S. Department of Justice for information about potential abuse of funds and money laundering concerning USAID funds in Serbia, citing statements by Trump, State Secretary Marco Rubio, tech billionaire Elon Musk and other U.S. officials about the USAID fund freeze.

A special anti-corruption department has asked the police to “collect necessary intel to check the information and collect evidence regarding suspicions of non-targeted spending of USAID funds, abuse of funds and possible money laundering,” Stefanovic said.

Police have been tasked with gathering all documentation regarding USAID donations from four non-government organizations, he said.

The International Fact-Checking Network strongly condemned Tuesday’s actions by Serbian authorities citing “false claims of corruption in connection with USAID funds made by Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump as justification.”

“This is not the first time that government institutions in Serbia have attempted to intimidate independent media and civil society organizations, but it is an unprecedented escalation of government repression,” the group’s statement said.

Both Belgrade-based Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability, or CRTA, and the Civic Initiatives group confirmed police forces were at their offices on Tuesday.

CRTA, which provides independent monitoring of elections in the Balkan country, posted on X that it was “fully cooperating with the state authorities.”

The Civic Initiatives described the raid in a statement as a “serious attack on basic civic rights and a continuation of illegal pressure on civil society in Serbia.”

“The use of police for political purposes presents harsh abuse of state institutions to crack down on those who think differently and suffocation of free and democratic activities in Serbia,” the statement said.

The raids came as Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government face months-long anti-corruption protests. The student-led demonstrations have grown into a nationwide anti-graft movement that has rattled Vucic, a vocal supporter of Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since the 1990s, USAID has invested several billion dollars in countries like Moldova, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina — all former communist countries with aspirations of joining the European Union.

In these countries, USAID funding has promoted democratic institutions and reforms, aided infrastructure and energy security projects, bolstered businesses and economies, and supported a significant number of nongovernmental organizations and independent media platforms.

Most of the grants given to Serbia went to state institutions, according to officials and independent media reports.