A protest under the slogan “Justice for Bogdan is justice for all” is being held in front of the building of judicial authorities in Novi Sad. Student Ivana tells N1 that students have several demands, in addition to the one to lift the detention of Bogdan Jovičić. A new protest is announced for tonight at 6:30 p.m., which, the students say, will be even bigger.
At the gathering, 16 minutes of silence were held, followed by noise.
The students, as our reporter reports, have several demands – the release of student Bogdan Jovićić to defend himself from freedom, but also all those who are charged with a serious criminal offense in the case of the attack on the Cobras, as well as the farmers and the citizen who were placed under house arrest. There is also another demand – the students, namely, are also against the proposed amendments to the criminal law concerning traffic blockades and the definition of rape.
A large number of citizens have gathered, who came at the invitation of the students from 11:30 a.m. The gathering was scheduled to last one hour, but it is lasting longer. A new gathering is scheduled for the afternoon, at 6:30 p.m.
Sutjeska street, where the building of the judicial authorities in Novi Sad is located, is blocked.
The point of this particular protest, as the N1 reporter reports, is for the gathered people to make noise and appeal to the judicial authorities to react to the appeal filed by Bogdan Jovičić’s lawyer yesterday, which is an appeal against the decision to extend the detention.
Student Ivana tells N1 that this is a protest – a reminder that the students are there.
“Yesterday at 11 a.m., an appeal was filed with the court for Bogdan’s detention extension and the deadline for the decision is 48 hours. Also, last night house arrest was ordered for the farmers.
We are asking for the release of charges for all those who allegedly attacked the members of the Cobras and we are protesting against the proposed amendments to the criminal law concerning traffic blockades and the definition of rape. So this protest is in a way a reminder that we are here and that we will not give up the fight and that we are following everything they do,” Ivana said.
And what can citizens expect from tonight’s protest?
“More about the protest program itself will be said tonight, but we expect as many citizens as possible on campus. I can only say that last night’s protest was just an overture. Tonight we expect something bigger and we expect something more, but more about that tonight,” she said.
We also ask her if there are any indications of what Novi Sad will look like in the coming days.
“I think we will see tonight roughly where the protest takes us, so to speak, and last time when we had similar protests, they lasted for several days, it turned into a civil rebellion, civil disobedience, so I believe that we will follow roughly what the tide of the events is, what are the news related to our demands and simply follow the situation, we will know more about that sometime in the future,” she said.
She also added that she believes that the gatherings will exert some kind of pressure, but not in the sense of negative pressure.
“I think it is very important that all public prosecutors are aware of the fact that the public is watching them, that what they do will not go under the radar, will not go without the attention of the media, without the attention of the citizens and that we are simply watching what they are doing,” the student pointed out.
She added that she is not so familiar with the case with the farmers, but that for the case with Bogdan, she believes that he is being held illegally.
“I believe that they extended his detention without legal grounds for it, and the lawyer also believes that. In essence, they extended his detention and only then started looking for evidence for the new indictment that was filed. So that was the problem with filing the appeal because then the appeal could not be filed until they provided the evidence, and they don’t have the evidence and that was chaos,” the student stated.
Student Jovičić was arrested after incidents at the SNS premises in Novi Sad on August 14. On Tuesday, it was announced that Bogdan Jovičić was brought to his father’s funeral accompanied by police and with handcuffs tied around his legs, which caused numerous condemnations in the public.
After that incident, the public also learned that Jovičić was on a hunger strike in the prison in Klisa, in Novi Sad. He was transferred to the prison hospital in Belgrade on Wednesday afternoon.
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Source: N1; Photo: ATA Images