Picula Calls for Urgent Release of Professor Vasic and Other Political Prisoners in Serbia

Tonino Picula (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

The European Parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula, urged the authorities in Serbia on May 16 to "promptly release Professor Marija Vasic and other political prisoners" adding that the European Union’s leaders also had to respond.

"Professor Marija Vasic, who is on a dry hunger strike, is in life-threatening condition! I call for the immediate release of Vasic and other political prisoners in Serbia! There is no reason for them to be held in inhumane conditions. The citizens of Serbia want to live in a country free from legal and other forms of violence. The EU's leaders must respond," Picula said.

Marija Vasic, deputy president of the Novi Sad branch of the Free Citizens Movement, and a teacher at the Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj High School in Vojvodina’s capital, was arrested on March 14 together with four other activists from that party - Mladen Cvijetic, Lada Jovovic, Srdjan Duric, and Davor Stefanovic and Lazar Dinic, a member of the Students Against Authoritarian Rule (STAV) movement. Vasic started to refuse food and water in protest against a decision to keep the group in detention for another 30 days earlier this week. They are accused of attempting to overthrow the constitutional system, based on a wiretapped conversation between them on March 12 which was released by the pro-government media.

The European Parliament demanded the release of the detainees in a resolution that the European legislators passed last week at Picula’s proposal. "The European Parliament calls on the authorities in Serbia to release Marija Vasic, Lazar Dinic, Mladen Cvijetic, Lada Jovovic, Srdjan Duric, and Davor Stefanovic," says the May 17 Resolution.

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