Prosecutor's office dismisses reports of new "police raid" of faculty building as untrue

BELGRADE  - The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade on Thursday dismissed as untrue reports by some media outlets about a fresh "raid" of the Faculty of Philosophy building in Belgrade by Criminal Police Directorate personnel.

In a statement on its website, the prosecutor's office said that, earlier in the day, the Criminal Police Directorate had been notified that the faculty's legal department had belatedly found a copy of workplace safety rules from 2015 and initiated their handover to the police.

Earlier, a copy of old rules from 2007 was handed over to the police, the prosecutor's office added.

"The police have still not taken possession of the newly-found rules, and did not 'enter' the Faculty of Philosophy," the statement said, adding that the copy of the rules would be handed over "in line with the required procedures."

It noted that the police had also not "raided" the building in the past several days either, but carried out official activities and tasks in line with their authority by law.

Acting on orders from the Special Anti-Corruption Department of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, the Criminal Police Directorate has been carrying out activities concerning last Thursday's events in the faculty building, where several sprays and firecrackers caught fire on the fifth floor at around 10.40 pm, after which a 25-year-old female student died by falling to a plateau outside the building in what is suspected to have been a suicide jump.

On orders from the Prosecutor's Office, Criminal Police Directorate personnel entered the adjacent University of Belgrade Rectorate building on Tuesday to check whether there are any unsecured entrances to the faculty building and irregularities in the work of the Rectorate.