Release of Activists Demanded at Rally in Novi Sad, Court Voted Worst Institution

BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC

At the protest organized by students in Novi Sad in front of the judicial buildings in Vojvodina’s capital on May 12, the release was demanded of detained activists from the Free Citizens Movements and the organization Students Against Authoritarian Rule (STAV), as well as all political prisoners in Serbia.

At the end of the rally, the names of the two organizations’ 12 "detainees and exiles" were read aloud. They have been in custody for nearly two months under charges of attempting to overthrow the constitutional system, due to an audio recording of a meeting, during which they allegedly planned to storm the Parliament of Serbia and the Serbians state broadcaster RTS during the student protests on March 15 in Belgrade.

A vote was also held at the rally for the "worst institution," with the contenders being the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Information Agency, the judiciary, the prosecutor's office, and the Clinical Center of Vojvodina. The judiciary, according to the students, won the "title."

"Dear fellow citizens, we can proudly inform you that our country has achieved what many others have not – the complete collapse of all institutions, and all without a war. Courts work when they feel like it, laws apply except when they don't, and prisons are full, but inhabited only by those who have spoken the truth," the students declared at the protest.

Several hundred citizens attended the gathering, and gendarmerie and police equipped for riot control were present in the courtyard of the judicial building.