Biljana Sojkovic: Detention of Non-Violent Activists a Sign of Panic

Biljana Stojkovic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/MO)

Serbia’s Member of Parliament from the Together coalition, Biljana Stojkovic, said on June 19 that a decision to detain a group of activists who together with her were drawing messages against violence the previous evening showed that the regime was in a state of panic, and that it would implode soon.

Stojkovic said in a comment for BETA that last night the authorities had sent seven police officers to arrest a small group of activists drawing messages against violence on a pavement.

“The regime’s move to apprehend the activists and me, a Serbian MP, while drawing messages against violence on the pavement, glorified violence. The messages were drawn outside the Parliament of Serbia, where hate speech can be heard every day, which is precisely why the message ‘Stop Violence’ should be there,” Stojkovic explained.

According to the opposition MP, detaining an activist for an action not punishable by law shows that the police serve fully the purposes of the regime. She added that in the police station they were not allowed to use their phones and contact their families and lawyers.

On the evening on June 18, the police detained a co-president of the Together coalition, Biljana Stojkovic, and another four activists, for drawing the message “Serbia Against Violence” on the pavement outside the Parliament of Serbia. They were released after being held in a police station in Belgrade’s central municipality Stari Grad.