Law professor and prominent Government critic Tanja Karakamiseva informed that she was ordered to report to a police station by three uniformed police officers who arrived at her house and scared her children. The order came after the Helsinki Committee, a pro-Government organization, filed a proposal for criminal charges against Karakamiseva over a Facebook comment.

I was just in the Centar police station. Yesterday three police officers scared my underage children when they delivered an order that I have to go to the police station under suspicion that I have committed a crime – distribution of racist and xenophobic material using a computer system. I was reported by the Helsinki Committee. All is clear. They are elevating their political persecution to the maximum extent. The Helsinki Committee are defending the Government. We will see you in court. You will be ashamed of what you are doing, and I will remain on the side of truth and justice You will not intimidate me, said Karakamiseva.

The Helsinki Committee is filing numerous such proposals for criminal charges, almost exclusively against critics of the Government. These then lead to uniformed police being sent to the homes of the critical commentators and hand them orders to report to a police station. It is then up to the Public Prosecutors Office, a service which often attacks critics of the Government, to decide whether to pursue the Helsinki Committee’s charges further.