Suspect in attack on Israeli Embassy in Belgrade had also been investigated in Germany

A 17-year-old from Serbia suspected of carrying out the terrorist attack on the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade had also been the subject of criminal proceedings in Germany. The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed this to Radio Free Europe’s Balkan Service (RFE/RL).

The attack took place during the night between October 27 and 28. According to Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, the minor, armed with two knives, approached the Gendarmerie officer guarding the embassy and attacked him.

Serbia’s acting interior minister, Ivica Dačić, said the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar [God is great]” and charged at the gendarme. The latter opened fire with his weapon and killed the attacker.

Dačić added that the young man’s identity had not yet been confirmed, but that Serbian services had been monitoring him and knew that he supported the Islamic State.

In its response to RFE/RL dated October 30, the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office said that the District Court in the city had issued an arrest warrant in June 2026 for the 17-year-old Serbian national. He was suspected of several criminal offenses, including “providing instructions for the commission of a terrorist offense,” as well as disseminating and publicly using symbols of the extremist organization Islamic State.

According to the prosecution, the young man was suspected of having surveilled Sankt-Jakobs-Platz in Munich and attempted to obtain weapons with the aim of attacking the Jewish Museum in the city. He was held in pretrial detention at a juvenile facility from June 22 to July 24, 2026.

German authorities said the suspect had no previous convictions. He had lived with his father in Munich since 2022, while on July 24, 2026, he was deported to Serbia, where his mother lives.

The investigation into the attack in Belgrade is being led by Serbia’s Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office. Earlier, it told RFE/RL that the prosecutor had asked police to question the mother and stepfather of “the minor D.N., who is suspected of being the person [N.N.] who carried out the attack.”

In June 2024, the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade was also targeted by Miloš Žujović (1999), known by the name Salahudin. He attacked with a bow and arrows and wounded a Gendarmerie officer guarding the building.

The wounded gendarme fired his service weapon and killed Žujović. The incident was classified as terrorism and was followed by a large-scale police operation, in which several people were arrested who, according to Serbian authorities, had links to radical Islamist circles.

In 2019, seven people in Serbia were sentenced in final rulings to a total of 69 years and six months in prison. They were found guilty of joining together for the purpose of terrorism, participating in the war in Syria, and cooperating with the extremist group Islamic State./RFE/RL