Newsletters
Serbian police have arrested 11 people accused of inciting hatred in France and Germany, including placing pigs’ heads near mosques and defacing a Holocaust museum, authorities said Monday.
The suspects, all Serbian nationals, were allegedly trained by another suspect “acting under the instructions of a foreign intelligence service,” who remains at large, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The ministry did not specify the nationality of the foreign service.
“Their objective was also to spread ideas advocating and inciting hatred, discrimination and violence based on differences,” the statement said.
The group of 11 will be brought before the prosecutor on a range of offences, including racial discrimination and espionage. The arrests took place in capital Belgrade, and in Velika Plana, a town about 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the south, in coordination with the security services.
French police opened an investigation in early September after pig heads were discovered outside several mosques in Paris and nearby suburbs. The probe determined the perpetrators were foreign nationals who immediately left France “with the clear intention of causing unrest within the nation,” the ministry said.
CCTV footage showed the individuals arriving in Paris in the same vehicle overnight Sept. 8–9. The images also captured two men leaving the pig heads at several mosques. Authorities said the suspects likely used a Croatian telephone line, which was later traced crossing the French-Belgian border on Sept. 9 after the acts were committed.
The arrests follow earlier incidents in France. Three Serbian nationals accused of links to a “foreign power” were detained in May after synagogues and a Holocaust memorial were defaced with green paint.
In a separate case that same month, a court in Orleans sentenced a 19-year-old student to a six-month suspended prison term for posting anti-Muslim stickers in the city and on a university campus, according to the Collective for Countering Islamophobia in Europe (CCIE).
France is home to the largest Muslim population in the European Union as well as the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States.
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has reported a sharp rise in anti-Muslim hatred and antisemitism across several E.U. countries since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
Experts warn that in countries such as France, Denmark and the U.K., the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s war in Gaza has fueled a sustained wave of Islamophobia that goes beyond previous episodic surges.
1 min read
4 min read
