BELGRADE -- Authorities in Serbia have said they are questioning 11 people suspected of involvement in a series of hate acts against Muslim and Jewish sites in France, which included placing pigs’ heads outside mosques and daubing synagogues in green paint.
The suspects, all Serbian citizens, were arrested this week and are believed to have carried out a series of hate acts between April and September this year.
The alleged ringleader, identified with the initials M.G., remains at large.
The latest incident occurred in Paris in early September, when pigs’ heads were left in front of nine Paris mosques. Several had French President Emmanuel Macron's name scrawled on them.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez launched an investigation, saying on X on September 9 that all efforts were being made to “find the perpetrators of these heinous acts."
Paris police reported that the investigation ultimately showed that the pigs' heads had been placed by foreign nationals traveling in a car with Serbian license plates.
A farmer from Normandy told investigators that two people in a vehicle with license plates “that looked like Serbian ones" bought 12 pigs' heads from him and then immediately left, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Surveillance cameras recorded the same individuals arriving in Paris and showed two men placing pigs' heads in front of several mosques, the police said.
In April, a number of sites in Paris that included the Holocaust Museum, three synagogues, and a Jewish restaurant were vandalized with green paint.
The group of 11, identified by their initials only, were questioned at the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in the Serbian city of Smederevo, the office said in a statement. They were arrested on suspicion of associating to "commit criminal offences of racial and other discrimination and espionage," the statement added.
Prosecutors proposed that nine of them be remanded in custody for up to 30 days, the French AFP news agency reported.
France Blames Russia
French officials have previously stated that they were investigating Russia’s role in destabilizing operations to fuel social tensions and deepen divisions in the country.
Le Monde reported on September 27 that French investigators suspect a Serbian national "allegedly organized two destabilization operations targeting religious and memorial sites in Paris and its surroundings."
Investigators suspect that "these foreign interference operations were aimed at sowing discord within French society," the Le Monde daily reported. However, French investigative authorities still do not have concrete evidence of Russian involvement, Le Monde said.
French prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in September that the tactics used in the attacks on mosques resembled other incidents that have shaken France over the past two years, including the painting around 60 Stars of David on buildings in Paris and surrounding neighborhoods.
"This is why we can be convinced that these incidents are acts of interference," she told French news outlet BFMTV.
Beccuau added that the perpetrators were Eastern European nationals who often photograph what they do and send the images to people outside France.
Serbia, which aspires to EU membership, has close ties with Russia and is the only European country that has not imposed sanctions on Moscow.
Serbian prosecutors said the 11 people were also suspected of involvement in hate acts in Germany but did not provide detailed information. German media reported in December that a pig’s head was placed in front of a mosque in Frankfurt an der Oder.
RFE/RL received no immediate response to a request for comment from authorities in France, Germany, and Serbia.
