Serbian autocrat loses election following widespread reports of digital repression

Serbian strongman leader Aleksandar Vučić on Sunday admitted defeat in his race for prime minister, a loss that follows a series of incidents of digital repression that galvanized the opposition.

Vučić has served as prime minister and, subsequently, president of Serbia since 2014, and has grown increasingly repressive throughout his tenure. Over the past two years, digital forensic researchers have said they have found evidence which strongly suggests spyware targeting or infections on devices belonging to dozens of Serbian opposition leaders, protesters, prosecutors and journalists. 

The regime has repeatedly deployed Cellebrite surveillance software to secretly extract data from opponents’ devices  — and in some cases install spyware — during bogus interrogations and arrests, researchers from Amnesty International have said.

Last week, researchers at the Citizen Lab alleged that University of Belgrade Rector Vladan Đokić’s device was infected with powerful zero-click spyware known as Pegasus earlier this year.

Đokić has long resisted facilitating a government-led campaign to crack down on student protesters despite intense pressure from the Vučić administration.

In March, Serbian authorities seized servers and computers in his Belgrade office, the Citizen Lab said.

The regime also targeted Rade Bajić — a prosecutor who investigated alleged shady dealings between Vučić and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner — with Pegasus, according to Serbia’s SHARE Foundation. Kushner had allegedly sought to buy a protected historic site in Belgrade to erect a Trump Tower.

Bajić, who received multiple Apple spyware threat notifications about the attempted snooping, had been pursuing government officials believed to have created forged documents in an effort to secure the deal, the SHARE Foundation said.

The digital repression dates back to at least 2024, according to foundation researcher Andrijana Ristić, who works closely with the student protesters who have been targeted.

“At first it was civil society, journalists, and activists and then it moved to these protesters and a new election cycle,” Ristić said in an interview last week. 

The recent spike in confirmed spyware cases is likely due to the fact that the “stakes are so high for the government right now,” said Ristić.

So far this year, security experts have found at least 15 people whose devices have been targeted with mercenary spyware in Serbia, according to the SHARE Foundation.

In February 2025, Cellebrite said it cut ties with the Serbian government after Amnesty International found that authorities there had “systematically deployed” the surveillance technology to penetrate civilians’ phones and install spyware. However, weeks later Amnesty found the software still being deployed in attacks against opponents.

Two investigative journalists also were targeted with Pegasus in March 2025, according to Amnesty International.

A spokesperson for the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.