Pegasus Spyware Found on Belgrade University Rector’s Phone
Citizen Lab and Serbia’s SHARE Foundation confirmed a zero-click infection on Vladan Đokić’s iPhone, days before the election. A prosecutor’s phone is still being examined.
The iPhone of Vladan Đokić, rector of the University of Belgrade, was infected with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in 2026, the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab said on 19 October, after forensic work begun by the Serbian digital-rights group SHARE Foundation. The lab said it reached that conclusion with high confidence and that the attack used a zero-click exploit requiring no action by the user.
Đokić, an architect who has led the university since 2021, became a prominent figure in the student protest movement after refusing to help authorities crack down on protesters.
A prosecutor targeted too
Citizen Lab also flagged Rade Bajić, a senior associate at the Organised Crime Prosecutor’s Office who worked on the “Generalštab” corruption case concerning a heritage site in central Belgrade. Bajić said he received an Apple warning on 13 August that his phone had been targeted by “mercenary spyware”; analysis of his device is continuing.
A pattern
In September SHARE, supported by Citizen Lab and Amnesty International, reported that more than a dozen people in Serbia — students, activists, a member of parliament and an opposition councillor — had been targeted earlier in the year. Serbia’s security service dismissed those reports as sensationalism. Pegasus is sold only to governments; Citizen Lab did not name the operator.
International election observers cited allegations of unlawful digital surveillance among their concerns. Whether the new parliament orders an independent inquiry will be an early test of its commitment to accountability.
Sources
This report is written by The Serbian Review from the sources listed above; facts are attributed where they could not be independently verified. Spotted an error? See our Corrections Policy.
