ELEVEN Serbs were arrested at the end of last month on suspicion of inciting religious and national intolerance in France and Germany. The group are believed to have used hybrid tactics to desecrate religious sites, including mosques and synagogues, between April and September.

Some of the acts that they are alleged to have committed include placing pigs’ heads outside several mosques in Paris, throwing green paint over synagogues, a Holocaust memorial, and a Jewish restaurant, and drawing skeletons with offensive messages at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Serbian officials have said that the group’s intention was to “violate fundamental human rights and freedoms” based on differences in race, skin colour, religious affiliation, nationality, and ethnic origin. The Serbian Ministry of the Interior said that the group sought to “spread ideas that advocate and incite hatred, discrimination, and violence”.

In its statement, the Ministry said that the organiser of the group, who has allegedly provided training to the group members, had been acting on instructions from a foreign intelligence service. The main organiser is said to be still at large.

French authorities are widely believed to suspect the involvement of the Russian military-intelligence agency (GRU), owing to the nature of the operation and information provided by allied nations. Although no concrete evidence has been found so far to link Moscow to these operations, the French daily Le Monde reported that the group’s co-ordinator was believed to have been recruited by Russia by means of the social-messaging service Telegram, and to have operated from Serbia.

The French Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, condemned the anti-Semitic provocations that occurred at the end of May, in a post on X. “I am deeply disgusted by these heinous acts targeting the Jewish community,” he wrote

In a separate investigation, Serbian police detained two individuals for organising training for 150 citizens from Moldova and neighbouring Romania. The training centred on methods of physically resisting security forces during potential riots linked to the parliamentary elections in Moldova at the end of last month, which were seen as crucial for maintaining the government’s pro-EU course.

The arrests in Serbia were made days after Moldova’s own large-scale investigation, which involved 250 raids and the arrest of more than 70 individuals.

The Balkan Insight website referred to the findings of the Moldovan prosecutors, and reported that some of those involved in the training in Serbia had been unaware of the true nature of the activities, after being initially told that they were visiting religious sites in Serbia.