I found out about the ban on April 16th when I was leaving Serbia. Border police officers called me into their office and, after an hour and a half of waiting, informed me that I was banned from entering Serbia. They had no answers to my questions about the grounds, for how long, who made the decision, who entered the ban into the system and who controls these decisions. They only told me that “it is written in the system” and that they were just carrying out orders from above, she told “Vijesti”. Helena Strugar, a student from Budva, who explains this drastic measure by the Serbian authorities with events at her home Faculty of Law in Belgrade on January 13th of this year.
That evening, on the eve of the Orthodox New Year, Helena came to the Faculty of Law to be with her colleagues, whom she has supported since the beginning of the protest. Previously, the individuals who were causing incidents were removed from the faculty territory, accompanied by faculty security guards.
"I stayed outside with a few fellow security guards to find out exactly what happened, because when I arrived, I only saw my beaten friends entering the faculty building. After a while, I noticed a group of hooded guys approaching. I immediately took out my phone and tried to film their faces, because I knew they weren't coming with good intentions, since they had previously caused incidents at the faculty. Everything then happened very quickly. The masked attackers physically attacked my colleagues, and I managed to film both their attacks and their faces," recalls Helena Strugar.
A few moments later, according to her, the leader of the group rushed towards her and punched her in the arm, knocking out her phone. He tore off her fingernail and Helena says she was bleeding profusely. Despite everything, she says she tried to stand between the attacker and her friends, believing that perhaps they would refrain from hitting her even more brutally because the girl was standing in front of them.
"They threw glass bottles at us and it's a miracle that no one was cut. My friends ended up on the floor, while the masked attackers brutally kicked them. It was a truly horrible and terrifying night," the student said.
Police, prosecutor's office, Informer...
The next day, the young woman from Budva was summoned to the police, then to the Prosecutor's Office. Before she gave an official statement to the police, she recorded a video of a police officer checking the surveillance cameras of the Law Faculty, asking him to show her his ID. The video, which the police officer recorded, was soon published in the regime tabloid Informer, Helena says, and was most likely compromised as evidence in court.
"When I went to the police to give a statement, the same police officer mentioned that they knew my father, which put additional pressure on me. During the statement, I had to insist on several corrections in the record before I signed it, and only after the corrections in the text did I sign it. All of this speaks to the atmosphere in which I was interrogated and the attempt to manipulate my statement. It is interesting that my statement, in its original version, was never published in Informer, unlike the statements of all my colleagues who gave statements on the same day at that same police station, because based on my statement they could not make subsequent manipulations to mitigate the criminal offense, which is why it was omitted from the regime tabloid. I assume that a web has been woven against me since then," Helena is decisive.
After that, she was summoned to the Prosecutor's Office both as an injured party and as a witness, where, according to her, she was faced with cross-examination by six lawyers representing the defendants.
"The lawyer who represented the leader of the beatings stood out in particular, with his brazen demeanor, provocations, and shouting at me, all with the aim of further scaring and confusing me so that I would change my statement. However, I remained consistent, speaking only of the facts and what I personally experienced and saw that night," adds Strugar.
Right against the decision
She states that neither the Ministry of Interior nor the Prosecutor's Office had any hints that she would be banned from entering Serbia.
"For me, this process was just an opportunity to tell what I personally experienced and saw that evening. I could not have imagined for a moment that the monstrous minds that had captured the institutions would be ready for such additional abuses and persecution," Helena explains.
The ban was handed to her upon her arrival in Montenegro for the Easter holidays.
"The police explained to me that they could not hand me any paper at that time, but that the next time I tried to enter Serbia, they would officially hand me a decision and refuse entry. I was officially handed the decision on April 22nd, the first working day after the Easter holidays," Helena points out.
She notes that until the last moment she hoped that it was an individual mistake and abuse and that someone in authority would reverse it, but then she realized, as she says, that it was not abuse by an individual in authority, but organized criminal abuse by networked individuals in captive institutions.
"Then I definitely understand that the preparation for such a brutal persecution was a synchronized subterfuge and targeting by the regime media, which, a minute after the sound cannon at the large protest on March 15, simultaneously published heinous lies in the most horrific criminal context, stating the full names and surnames of me and my own sister, which turned our lives into a nightmare," explains the student, emphasizing that she launched "an entire legal battle against this decision."
"When it comes to continuing my studies, it is certainly at risk, but I hope that through legal action and the prosecution of those responsible, this will be overcome as soon as possible," said Helena Strugar.
Despite this illegal attack and unfounded expulsion from the country, she emphasizes that she has never experienced Serbia and Montenegro differently, but in an identical way.
"These are my countries because, first of all, I was born and raised in the same common state. My father is a citizen of Serbia, and my mother is a citizen of Montenegro, so I will continue my legal fight even more strongly, including filing criminal charges, against all those responsible who participated in this, all with the goal of achieving final victory," says Helena Strugar, a student at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade who was banned from entering Serbia by the Serbian authorities without explanation.
For me, this process was just an opportunity to tell what I personally experienced and saw that evening. I could not have imagined for a moment that the monstrous minds that had captured the institutions would be prepared for such additional abuses and persecution.
Helena Strugar was born in Cetinje, and lives in Budva, where she completed elementary and high school, except for the second grade of elementary school, which she attended in Vrnjacka Banja.
After graduating from high school, she enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade.
Pumping and stewing
"My motive is the same as that of hundreds of thousands of Serbian citizens - the crime that occurred at the Novi Sad railway station on November 1, 2024, as well as the reaction of the authorities after that tragic event. That was the moment when we all clearly saw how rotten the system was, and that could have happened to any of us," Strugar said.
"In addition, students were once again attacked in the same way that we have unfortunately become accustomed to in previous years by the so-called hoodlums, who act against citizens every time any change or, God forbid, accountability is demanded. We have been witnessing captured institutions for years, and the attack on students was the last straw," Helena explains.
She states that in the coming period we can expect "one big pumping and stewing, that is, a continuous struggle without retreating until all student demands are met."
Bonus video:
