Activists in Exile: Interpol’s Reaction Proves We Are Being Politically Persecuted

Photo: Beta/Dragan Gojić

The six Novi Sad activists from the University Students Against Authoritarian Government group who have spent over a year outside Serbia due to charges of attempting to topple the constitutional order, said on July 22 that Interpol’s refusal to issue a warrant for their arrest proves that Serbia’s regime is only hunting them for political reasons.

One of the group’s defense attorneys, Zeljko Kocic, announced previously that Interpol declined the Serbian government’s request because the organization considers the charges against the activists to be political in nature.

“Interpol refused to help Serbia’s authorities achieve their mission – to abuse the power they have been wielding so cavalierly and punish us for our activism,” the activists in exile said in their press release.

According to them, this means that the proceedings causing them to have spent the past 16 months outside their country and homes, “forcibly removed from their lives,” are not criminal proceedings but “merely and solely the political self-will of a state currently run by this authoritarian regime.”

Twelve activists from two groups – the University Students Against Authoritarian Government and the Movement of Free Citizens – have been accused of preparing acts against the constitutional order and state security, pertaining to the crimes of attacking the constitutional order and calling for a violent change to the constitutional order.