Zorica Popović on the crime against journalists in Bor: With an axe against people?! That's when I saw that we were attacked by killers.

“I cannot sit due to the pain; I can either lie down or stand. I can’t even remember that the three of them hit me in the back. One was directly elbowing me in the right kidney,” Ivan Bjelić told me. “I don’t remember at all; I just feel terrible pain. At that moment, I was so focused on getting back my phone, which they took from me because of the recordings, that I wasn’t thinking about anything else, I was just chasing after them,” Zorica Popović, a freelance photo reporter, tries to recall the horror she experienced alongside activists and journalists from the Revolt portal, Lazar Dinić and Ivan Bjelić, who were beaten in the Šarbanovac neighborhood of Bor:

“Then they started kicking me in the stomach. I remember that. Now I’m on the phone, waiting for a call from the prosecutor's office, and as soon as I finish that, I’ll go to have my kidney checked. I console myself that if it were something more serious, I would feel even worse. The pain is quite strong, but I can still stand.”

Zorica Popović, a petite photo reporter, who is no taller than 160 cm, was beaten and kicked by men wearing masks, who were twice her size. They also assaulted Ivan Bjelić and Lazar Dinić, eventually attacking them with an axe. The attackers were on a "video call" with someone who was giving instructions and insulting Bjelić, calling him a “Ustaša” and threatening him with death.

Zorica told Cenzolovka that there are suspicions that the person on the other end of the line was someone who has been at the top of the regime of Aleksandar Vučić for many years. They no longer have video evidence because their phones were all broken. Members of the electoral board, mostly elderly people, who witnessed the crime, were too shocked or scared to pick up the phone and record.

I turned around and saw the axe

Journalists were attacked precisely because they were doing their job.

“When I saw Lazar, I started to cry. I couldn’t calm down for the next few hours. We were all shaken. The three of us and the people who were present. A girl started to tremble.”

“We received a tip that there were irregularities at the polling place by the school in that neighborhood. Indeed, when we arrived, we saw a van and masked people. At the polling place, we asked the members of the electoral board if there had been any incidents, irregularities, and if they felt safe. On our way to our car, we passed by the van. We saw two inside and two outside. They started yelling at us and insulting us. I showed my ID, took out my phone, and asked if they would take off their masks and give statements to the media about why they were there. However, one of them got in my face, and I reached out my hand. He started yelling that I physically touched him and that he would sue me, and then he grabbed my phone from my hand. I started to fight with him for the phone,” Zorica Popović recounts for Cenzolovka, continuing.

“I grabbed his hands. We were struggling. He smashed my phone and threw it into the orchard nearby. I ran into the thorns and managed to find it, but I couldn’t save it. At that moment, I raised my camera to photograph him, and he tried to grab it. I handed the camera to Bjelić to put it in the car. The aggressor continued to kick me in the stomach. He is much taller than me. It didn’t take much for him to hit me precisely. Two of them jumped on Bjelić. I started to defend him. The one who was kicking me grabbed the camera. Two of them let go of Bjelić, and I continued to run after the camera.”

At that moment, she heard a sound that unmistakably indicated a fight. Suddenly, she says, 15 people appeared around them.

“I turned around and saw the axe. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. An axe on people? Ivan was bruised, Lazar was missing. Ivan yelled that they had taken Lazar. We were calling for him. Our phones were broken, we couldn’t call anyone. That level of despair, knowing that someone would call the police, and that the police wouldn’t do anything. And you see that they brought an axe and that you are dealing with murderers,” Zorica Popović recounts.

“The masked attackers, as we later found out, were chasing Lazar Dinić. They caught him by the Timok River and tortured him. They beat him, filmed him, and forced him to shout: Aca is my president.”

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THE OWNER OF THE AUDI KICKED ME

Zorica Popović also commented on the information that surfaced on social media about an Audi with Pančevo license plates and its owner, who, on election day, was touring the villages of Bor with a mask on his face.

“In fact, the owner of that Audi kicked me. I can confirm that without a doubt. He was wearing a mask, but he has eerie light green eyes. I told that to the inspector when he asked me if I could describe him. I said yes. I remembered his eyes. That’s why he wanted to grab my camera when I tried to photograph him.”

Lazar Dinić, Revolt portal (photo: Instagram)

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When I saw Lazar, I started to cry

When colleagues spotted Lazar, he was bloody, bruised, and wet.

“Lazar Dinić is a guy who barely weighs 50 kilograms. They hit him, insulted him, filmed him. Someone called the police. The police arrived. The police laughed at us,” the interviewee for Cenzolovka continues:

“We were all shaken. The three of us and the people who were present. A girl started to tremble. When I saw Lazar, I started to cry. I couldn’t calm down for the next few hours. In my mind, all of this was my responsibility. They are younger than me, and I started to film. Those 15 minutes until we found Lazar will be the most intense trauma of my life.”

The aggressor continued to kick me in the stomach. He is much taller than me. It didn’t take much for him to hit me precisely. Two of them jumped on Bjelić. I started to defend him. The one who was kicking me grabbed the camera.

The attackers were not afraid of the police, she notes:

“I see cars coming from the opposite direction at an abnormal speed. I told the police, this is one of them, stop him. The police didn’t move. They just stood there and watched.”

Soon, an ambulance arrived.

“They suspected that Lazar had broken ribs. His eye was pretty compromised. He needed urgent care in Bor; Ivan went with him. The councilor from the last term, Aleksandar Kulić, and I stayed to wait for the media, but no one showed up. He wasn’t feeling well. He had a terrible swelling on his head, and he started to feel dizzy. I started feeling nauseous, I was about to throw up. The police wrapped up their business, and we went to the emergency service at the Health Center. They only asked me how I was, examined my abdomen, measured my blood pressure, and gave me a benzodiazepine. I received a referral for surgery, and Kulić for maxillofacial surgery. Lazar was urgently referred to Belgrade by ambulance. Bjelić went with him.”

This is the fourth time I’ve been beaten at protests

“This is not my first time. This is the fourth time I’ve been beaten since the protests began. The more serious injuries were when I was beaten at a protest in Novi Sad, but I feel like this was the worst. Literally, when I close my eyes, I try to think of something else, but flashes come: to the emergency room, to bloody Lazar, to the feeling of horror because I don’t know where he is. This was literally war,” emphasizes Zorica Popović.

In Bor, she says, the chief inspector was “more than correct.”

“They told me that this would go through an expedited process and offered me to stay overnight in Bor and go before the prosecutor the next day. I said I couldn’t and that they would provide me with a prosecutor.”

On Tuesday, two days after the attack, Zorica Popović still had not received a call from the prosecutor to open an investigation into the horrific attack on journalists who were trying to report to the public about election day in Bor.

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CAMERA IF I CHANGE MY STATEMENT

Zorica Popović tried through informal channels to find out who the individuals were that stole her camera, intending to try to get it back.

“I indirectly contacted a person from the police who, shortly after the incident, knew what had happened. And I received an offer. This person said that the police allegedly offers to return my old camera or buy me a new one if I change my statement and say that I lost it in the crowd. Because, allegedly, if they admit they know where the camera is and what happened, they would literally be admitting to a crime organized by the state. But they are allegedly willing to pay for a new one in exchange for a changed statement,” Zorica Popović testifies for Cenzolovka.

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Source: Cenzolovka