According to serbia's "Politika" local time reported on the evening of May 18, Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs released news on the same day that it has identified 19 addresses that have previously issued "bomb threat" emails against Serbian schools, gymnasiums, railway stations and many other infrastructure, of which 8 are in Poland, 4 are in the Gambia, 2 each in Iran and Nigeria, and 1 each in Ukraine, Slovenia and Russia.
Serbia's interior ministry said police had inspected hundreds of public buildings affected by the incident and determined that all "bomb threats" were fake.
Screenshot of the report
"The Crime Detection Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior, the Office of the Prosecutor for Organized Crime, the Office of the Senior Prosecutor and the Office of the Special Prosecutor specializing in combating high-tech crime have identified a total of 19 email addresses, including 18 Google Email email addresses and 1 ProtonMail (an encrypted email address software established in Switzerland)," the Serbian Ministry of The Interior said. Threats concerning the placement of explosive devices at different facilities in Serbia are sent from these e-mail addresses. Of these, 8 are in Poland, 4 in the Gambia, 2 each in Iran and Nigeria, and 1 each in Ukraine, Slovenia and Russia. ”
Since the persons who made the "bomb threat" were not Serbian citizens, in order to facilitate the subsequent prosecution of their crimes, the Serbian Ministry of the Interior has sent an application to Europol and Interpol to cooperate with the competent authorities in Sweden, Lithuania, Switzerland, Russia and Hungary to investigate the matter, and at the same time to ask Google to hand over information about the e-mail involved.
"Since March 11, Serbian institutions have received a total of 48 threat messages from public places and institutions with explosive devices, most of which come from abroad, through Google email (Gmail), ProtonMail, Eunet mail, Yandex portal and anonymous telephone," said the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs. ”
In addition, the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs also said that some Serbian citizens also issued threatening messages in the past few days, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has prosecuted 8 Serbian citizens in 4 days, 2 of whom were arrested by the police, and the remaining 6 minors were also filed with criminal charges.
According to previous reports, in recent days, various parts of Serbia have frequently received "bomb threat" information.
On the morning of May 16, local time, 97 primary and secondary schools in the capital Belgrade received bomb threat reports. Students from the schools concerned left and returned home, and the police conducted a security check on the campus.
On the 17th, the Serbian media "novosti.rs" website reported that the editorial office of the media received an email with threatening content on the same day, and some people claimed that bombs were "planted" in many places in the capital Belgrade, including not only the presidential palace, military academy, airport, railway station, bridge and other government agencies and infrastructure, but also a number of schools, markets, stadiums, museums and shopping malls and other public places. In addition, the embassies of China, Russia and Belarus in Serbia are also on the threat list.
The sender said in a threatening email: "We will not give up unless Serbia imposes sanctions on Russia, we can do this every day ..."
Diana Milutinovic, a head of Serbia's security services, said the operations were carefully designed and organized to spread fear and unease among the Serbian public, leading to a shift in Serbian state policy. In his view, behind such actions, there is no individual, but an organization, a security agency or an entire State. "We don't know who's involved, but it's clear that NATO and Ukraine are interested in it."
Serbia's interior minister, Aleksandar Vulin, noted that Serbia is facing a "special war" in which the "bomb threat" is a large-scale, organized and costly hacking attack led by various "hybrid war centers". The email addresses involved were all from institutions or news outlets in European countries whose fundamental goal was for Serbia to stop pursuing its independent policy and "make decisions under pressure and fear."
Minister of internal affairs of Serbia Aleksandr Wulin
Wulin said that after receiving the threat report, the government immediately took countermeasures such as professional verification of threat information and evacuation of citizens. Over the past three days, serbian police have inspected hundreds of public buildings, schools, hospitals and shopping malls to determine that all "bomb threat" reports are fake. He also said the matter had cost Serbia millions of euros.
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