Elham Asaad Buaras
Serbian authorities have arrested 11 citizens accused of carrying out a series of hate-motivated attacks in France and Germany, acts which officials say were directed by an unidentified foreign intelligence service to sow ethnic and religious division.
The suspects, arrested on September 29, are alleged to have committed several high-profile incidents in early September, including placing nine pigs’ heads at the entrances of mosques across Paris and its suburbs—acts condemned by French Muslim groups as blatant Islamophobia.
According to Serbia’s interior ministry, the group also vandalized the Holocaust Museum, several synagogues, and a Jewish restaurant in Paris, daubing them with green paint and plastering stickers with “genocidal” slogans. In a separate incident in Berlin, they allegedly left “concrete skeletons” marked with inflammatory messages at the Brandenburg Gate.
Serbian officials stated the 11 individuals were recruited and trained by a fellow Serbian national who remains at large and was acting “on the orders of an unidentified foreign intelligence service.”
The ministry described the operation as a deliberate campaign to “incite hatred, discrimination, and violence.”
The arrests, carried out in coordination with international security services in Belgrade and the town of Velika Plana, result in charges of racial discrimination and espionage.
The investigation gained traction after French police traced a vehicle with Serbian license plates and a Croatian phone number to the areas near the targeted Paris mosques. The case bears similarities to an incident in April, when three Serbs were detained in France for vandalizing the Holocaust Memorial and Jewish sites.
A French judicial source told AFP at the time that the men were believed to be acting “in order to serve the interests of a foreign power.”
French and German security services have repeatedly warned that a portion of recent hate crimes may be linked to foreign interference, with observers often citing Moscow.
Iranian networks have also been accused of plotting attacks on Jewish sites in Europe. The arrests highlight ongoing geopolitical tensions. Serbia maintains strong ties with Russia, with daily direct flights between Belgrade and Moscow and repeated visits by President Aleksandar Vučić to the Russian capital.
France, which is home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, has reported a significant surge in both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents since the outbreak of the Gaza war following the October 7 Hamas-led assault on Israel.
Feature photo: Several pig heads, some marked with President Emmanuel Macron’s surname, were left at nine mosques in Paris and its suburbs. Foreign nationals are believed to be responsible. (Credit: X)
