¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·

Women on the frontline of months of Serbian anti-government protests say they have been the target of violent retribution and vicious online smear campaigns.

When Nikolina Sindjelic accused a police officer of assaulting and threatening to rape her, explicit images of her were published online and shown on national television.

President Aleksandar Vucic hailed his supporters who were charged with breaking the jaw of student Ana Vucak with baseball bats as ‘heroes’, later pardoning them over the attack.

This all comes as a report Thursday by Council of Europe experts found that women in the Balkan nation are exposed to ‘alarming levels’ of digital abuse, and justice for gender violence is often slow or badly handled.

Almost daily protests have gripped Serbia since November after a railway station roof collapse killed 16 people in Novi Sad, the country’s second-largest city.

Several violent episodes have marked the mostly peaceful movement, with particularly violent clashes in August. Online disinformation and harassment of protesters has been constant, however, with the worst hate often targeted at women.

The attack on Vucak as she was posting protest flyers on a street with other students in Novi Sad triggered public outrage.

According to the students, several men linked to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party attacked them with baseball bats, putting her in hospital.

In its wake, the prime minister resigned, but the men responsible were eventually pardoned by Vucic.

Similarly, a woman who drove into a female protester at a student blockade had the charges wiped after Vucic again intervened.

Mounting tension escalated in August into a series of violent clashes between demonstrators, police and government loyalists.

Videos of police brutality circulated widely. Some showed riot officers beating unarmed protesters, while a photograph of a young woman’s face left bloodied by a police baton incensed activists.

Amid the unrest, 22-year-old Sindjelic accused the commander of a special police unit of beating and threatening to rape her after being arrested after an anti-government rally in Belgrade.

The allegations were ‘firmly’ denied by the Interior Ministry.

Surrounded by supporters, Sindjelic marched to the police headquarters of the accused commander, carrying banners calling for better protection of women.

But pro-government media and SNS supporters had already begun smearing her online.

Explicit photos and her personal details were widely shared, and at least one television station broadcast the images.

A screenshot of a fake news article, which was later proven to be inauthentic by AFP, was also used to undermine her online.

‘This case clearly shows why the state has avoided legislating on ‘revenge porn’ — because they use it themselves,’ Sanja Pavlovic, from Belgrade’s Autonomous Women’s Centre, said.

According to the Council of Europe’s GREVIO report, Serbian law enforcement lacks the skills and staffing to properly investigate online abuse, which it noted was at ‘alarming levels’ in the country.

Vanja Bahilj, a vocal supporter of the anti-corruption movement, said she has also been relentlessly harassed online for her views, with most of the hate targeting her appearance.

‘The regime must pull out a bazooka for every mosquito because it cannot allow a single dissonant tone,’ Bahilj said.

The hate and smears directed at Sindjelic and Bahilj were particularly savage because they were women, according to human rights campaigner Dragoslava Barzut.

‘Women are more often discredited and punished more harshly because their ‘offence’ is not only against the system, but also against the patriarchal pattern of behaviour,’ Barzut said.

‘This double punishment shows how patriarchal patterns are used to preserve political power.’