ANEM REPORT: Misogyny and Aggression of the Accused "Bouncer Ćacilenda" for the Attack on the Insider Journalist

In this case, there would have been no epilogue for the violent behavior and coercion had it not been for journalistic solidarity and investigative work. Since the establishment of the so-called Ćacilend, the police have obstructed all cases of attacks by self-appointed security personnel, or rather, by the perpetrators. Although the police were often present in front of the Assembly, they were more protective of the perpetrators than of the attacked journalists, activists, or citizens.

The KRIK editorial team created a database of the so-called security personnel and those who frequently appear in the area of the so-called Ćacilend. This database also includes Jelenko Pijevac from Priboj, "known to law enforcement," who journalist Nataša Mijušković identified as a person against whom the public prosecutor had filed charges, while the main hearing was held today, September 28.

In brief, the prosecution's indictment states that on November 2, 2025, in front of the National Assembly, Jelenko Pijevac, along with several others, demanded that the journalist who took a recording and several photographs "Take your phone out of your pocket so we won't break all your bones," while he was squeezing her under her left arm and while other members of this group were preventing her from moving.

He also added the following threat: "Take that phone out; you don't know what could happen." Due to the very uncomfortable situation, pressed between several violent men, threats, and the squeezing of her hand, Nataša Mijušković took out her mobile phone and deleted the recordings she had made, after which she was allowed to leave the area.

In his testimony at the main hearing, Pijevac stated that either Miloš or Novak took her phone, deleted the photographs, and returned her mobile device, while many others did not have theirs returned, which the defendant implied highlighted the nobility of their actions.

Judge Ristić intervened by citing Pijevac's statement made in the prosecutor's office that the journalist was holding her mobile phone in her hand and that then Miloš or Novak deleted the content. The defendant stated that it was indeed as he testified before the prosecutor.

Before the main hearing began in the hall of the First Basic Court in Belgrade, an accredited journalistic team recorded the gathering of those invited to the main hearing. At one point, the defendant Jelenko Pijevac aggressively approached the camera operator of Insider TV, asking, "Do you have the right to film me here?"

Immediately, a representative of the court security intervened, explaining to him that the team had the right to report and film. The defendant repeated the same pattern of behavior in the First Basic Court as he did in Ćacilend and its surroundings. After the court security's intervention, the defendant withdrew.

During the main hearing, after introducing himself as a security personnel, the public prosecutor asked the defendant, "Who hired you?"

Jelenko Pijevac responded, "We patriots came on our own."

According to the KRIK editorial database, these self-organized "patriots" have committed dozens of criminal offenses and have decades, if not hundreds of years, of accumulated prison sentences.

Jelenko Pijevac himself records court rulings against him from 1986 to 2023 in Priboj, Bijelo Polje, Užice, and Prijepolje. He also has two convictions in Germany for theft using a weapon, as well as for serious theft in complicity from 2023.

It has been documented that Pijevac threatened a student in front of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, and threatened a journalist who reported on the illegal disposal of waste.

During the court hearing, Pijevac stated that he has a daughter and a wife and that he would never attack women, although the "journalist was so insolent that he had never seen or heard anything like it, and if he had been 100 percent a man, he would have reacted differently. As it was, he claimed, he restrained himself." The defendant emphasized the gender and the journalist's alleged insolence multiple times.

He stated that he thought the journalist had planted explosives and that he approached her for that reason. When asked whether he reported this suspicion to the police, which was nearby, he replied, "No, we did not trust them." The defense claims that Pijevac changed his testimony during the interrogation immediately after his arrest at the end of December 2025 and that he did not mention explosives at that time.

He testified that there is a gate in the area of the so-called Ćacilend, although it did not exist on the day of the attack on Mijušković and was only installed about ten days later. He also stated that "the scum from N1 and Nova television could not enter," later adding Insider TV to that group. After the judge warned him to be courteous in his expressions, he ceased such qualifications but maintained the same tone.

He did not admit to the crime he was accused of, emphasizing the unfair treatment by the public prosecutor. He refused to answer questions from the attorney representing the injured journalist. He admitted that he said various things and that other security personnel told the journalist that she was a traitor and a terrorist.

The main hearing will continue at the end of November.

The expansion of the territory of the so-called Ćacilend to the First Basic Court was unsuccessful.

The journalistic work, especially investigative journalism, has proven to be very important: the KRIK database also helped uncover the perpetrators of the attack on the N1 team, and the network of contact points between journalistic associations and prosecutors' offices facilitated this case reaching trial.

Therefore, it is crucial to report every threat, incident, and attack on journalists and media workers to the associations and to the toll-free number 0800 100 115.

Journalistic solidarity is the only real strength we can rely on.