Serbia arrests 11 accused of stirring hate in France, Germany

Serbian police have arrested 11 people over hate-motivated acts in France and Germany, including defacing Jewish sites and placing pigs' heads near mosques, authorities said Monday. A twelfth suspect, "currently on the run", is accused of training the group nationals on "the instructions of a foreign intelligence service", the Interior Ministry said in a statement, without specifying their nationality. The Serbian Interior Ministry announced that the arrests took place in Belgrade and in Velika Plana, a town about 100 kilometres south of the capital, in coordination with national security services. A twelfth suspect remains at large and is accused of training the group "on the instructions of a foreign intelligence service," the ministry said in a statement.

"Their objective was also to spread ideas advocating and inciting hatred, discrimination and violence based on differences," the ministry added. Between April and September, the group is also accused of throwing green paint at the Holocaust Memorial, several synagogues and a Jewish restaurant. They allegedly placed antisemitic stickers with "genocidal" messages and left pig heads at religious sites, some tagged with the name of French president Emmanuel Macron. In Germany, the same network allegedly left "concrete skeletons" inscribed with inflammatory messages at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.