Death of Ranko Panić

On 10 May 2019 the Higher Court in Belgrade reached a first-instance verdict which found Ristić not guilty. Judge Bojan Mišić concluded that it was impossible to prove without reasonable doubt that Panić was beaten by a police officer, that his injuries are what led to his death and that Nikica Ristić and Ranko Panić are indeed the two men depicted in the footage obtained from the Jugoeksport building.

Vučić has repeatedly accused the Democratic Party leadership under Boris Tadić, as well as the Cvetković cabinet, both of hiding evidence of Panić's assailant and of under-reporting the incident. Since the Socialist Party of Serbia formed a coalition with the Progressives, Dačić has also accused the Democrats and highlighted their connection to former Gendarmery leader Bratislav Dikić. These accusations were compiled in 2018 by Istinomer, a Serbian project based on PolitiFact.

Ristić announced in November 2016 he plans to remain silent in court.

On 8 September 2014, an officer of the Niš detachment of the Gendarmery, Nikica Ristić, was arrested on suspicion of inflicting serious bodily injury to Panić leading to his death. Ristić was found not guilty in the first instance by the Higher Court in Belgrade on 10 May 2019.

On 8 September 2014, an officer of the Niš detachment of the Gendarmery, Nikica Ristić, was arrested on suspicion of inflicting serious bodily injury to Panić leading to his death. The indictment was filed in December 2015 and the trial opened on 23 December 2016.

On 29 July 2009, the first anniversary of Panić's encounter with the police, the SNP 1389, a far-right movement with ties to the Serbian Progressive Party, blanketed Belgrade with "Who killed Ranko Panić?" posters.

In 2009, Pravda, a tabloid closely aligned with the Radical and later the Progressive Party, published a book by journalist Predrag Jeremić detailing Panić's life called Uhapšena istina – od Sretenja do Preobraženja (The Truth Under Arrest – from the Presentation to the Transfiguration). The name refers to the dates of the two Orthodox holidays, coinciding with the dates of Panić's birth and burial. The introduction was written by Aleksandar Vučić.

Vučić has organized commemorations of Ranko Panić's encounter with the police at Republic Square on the first and second anniversary in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, Vučić promised to honor Panić with a street name. On the fourth anniversary in 2012, he made a public visit to Panić's mother Smilja. In 2013, the commemoration was attended by high ranking Progressive Party member Nebojša Stefanović.

Following the arrest of ICTY fugitive Radovan Karadžić on 21 July 2008, protests by smaller far-right groups including Obraz and the 1389 Movement had been raging for a week. On 29 July the Serbian Radical Party organized a protest attended by around 16,000 people at the Republic Square in Belgrade called the Pan-Serbian Assembly to protest the arrest and extradition of Karadžić. The protest was co-organized by New Serbia, and supported by the Democratic Party of Serbia.

Ranko Panić (Serbian Cyrillic: Ранко Панић; 15 February 1967 – 15 August 2008) was a Serbian warehouse clerk who died due to injuries sustained from police brutality on 29 July 2008 during a protest against the arrest of Radovan Karadžić organized by the Serbian Radical Party and New Serbia.

Panić was born on 15 February 1967 in Karlovac and grew up in Korenica. He was a veteran of the War in Croatia, and arrived in Serbia after Operation Storm as a refugee. Panić lived in Mladenovac with his mother Smilja and domestic partner Mirjana Vujičić. Although he was educated to be a teacher, he worked mainly as a manual laborer and was working as a warehouse clerk for the Granice dairy farm for the past 9 years at the time of his death.