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| - The head of a prestigious Serbian drama school for children has been charged with rape, prosecutors said Thursday, in a case that caused a wave of women across the Balkans to come forward with their stories of abuse. Miroslav Aleksic was publicly accused of rape in January by actress Milena Radulovic, who claimed the attack took place in 2012, when she was 17 years old. Her testimony encouraged other actresses to come forward to accuse the 68-year-old Aleksic of sexual abuse and led to thousands of women in the region sharing their stories of trauma on social media. Aleksic has been charged with four counts of rape and five illicit sexual acts against seven women, the Higher Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade told AFP. If found guilty, Aleksic could face up to 15 years behind bars. The prosecutor added that the court hearing would be held behind closed doors for the sake of "protecting privacy of the participants", and did not comment if Radulovic's case was among those listed in the indictment. Aleksic, also a theatre director and producer, ran the prestigious Stvar Srca (The Thing of the Heart) private drama school in Belgrade that has been attended by more than 3,000 children, many of whom went on to have successful acting careers. Radulovic, who is pursuing her acting career in Russia, starred in a leading role in Serbian-Russian 2019 action movie "The Balkan Line". Aleksic's case also gripped Serbia's entertainment industry, which had not previously seen the "Me Too" reckoning that erupted in Hollywood in 2017 before rippling across the globe. In March and April, two actresses accused Serbian actor and former culture minister Branislav Lecic of rape, one of them openly saying Aleksic's case had motivated her to publicly speak about her trauma. dd/mbs/dl
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