11 Held in Serbia for Planting Pig Heads at French Mosques

Serbian police have arrested 11 nationals accused of carrying out hate-motivated attacks on mosques and Jewish sites in Paris and Berlin under the orders of a foreign intelligence service, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

The suspects allegedly placed pig heads outside at least nine mosques in and around Paris, threw green paint on the Holocaust Museum, synagogues and a Jewish restaurant, and left concrete “skeletons” at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. All crimes took place between April and September 2025, authorities said.

Investigators believe the group was trained in Serbia by another Serbian national, identified only as M.G., who remains at large. The ministry said the operations aimed to spread “hatred, discrimination and violence” against targeted communities, but did not identify the foreign intelligence service suspected of directing the plot.

French authorities had earlier determined that pig heads were placed at Paris mosques by foreign nationals who quickly left the country. France has previously accused Russia of orchestrating disinformation and provocations to inflame social tensions. In May, three Serbians were detained in France for defacing synagogues and a Holocaust memorial with green paint.

Serbia, which hopes to join the European Union, maintains close ties with Moscow and remains the only European state not to impose sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine.

The 11 detainees will face questioning before the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Smederevo within 48 hours, the ministry said.