Michael Polak Submits Urgent Communication to UN Committee Against Torture for Serbian Opposition Politician Nikola Sandulović Unlawfully Seized and Tortured
Justice Abroad’s Michael Polak has today made an urgent submission to the UN Committee Against Torture with esteemed Serbian human rights lawyer Čedomir Stojković on behalf of Serbian politician Mr. Nikola Sandulović who is the president of the Republican Party in Serbia.
After attending a grave of a Kosovan Albanian family on 2 January 2024, Mr. Sandulović published a post on the social network X in which he wrote: ‘I am the only politician from Serbia who came to pay his respects to the innocent Albanian victims, the Jašari family, at Prekazi. I apologised and asked for forgiveness on behalf of the Serbs who did not commit this’. He attached a video showing himself laying flowers at the grave with his tweet.
On 3 January 2024 at around 3:30 p.m, a black van appeared in front of Mr. Sandulović's house and members of the Security Information Agency of Serbia (BIA) exited and took Mr. Sandulović to their headquarters where he was subject to severe physical attacks by a large number of security personnel amounting to torture, before being taken to the military hospital in Belgrade before being brought home the next day by ambulance. Mr. Sandulović suffered a broken rib and several other serious physical injuries.
In the evening of 4 January 2024, Mr Sandulović was seized again and is now in Belgrade Central Prison without access to independent medical treatment. It is understood that Serbian authorities intend to put Mr Sandulovic on trial for the offence under Article 317 of the Criminal Code for placing the flowers on the grave and publishing a video of doing so. Article 317 reads: "Whoever causes or incites national, racial or religious hatred, or intolerance among peoples or ethnic communities living in Serbia, shall be punished by imprisonment from six months to five years." A prosecution of this type seems unlikely to be in accordance with domestic law or Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights which protects freedom of expression.
At a hearing today, 6 January 2024, when it was stated by defence Counsel that laying a flower on a family’s grave could not possibly be a criminal offence, Judge Milica Grujić stated "I am ordering a 30-day detention for Sandulović because he laid flowers on the grave of an Albanian child."
Mr Sandulovic has today been detained for a further 30 days for investigation of his ‘crime’.
The United Nations Committee Against Torture submission requests urgent measures ordering that the torture against Mr Sandulović is stopped, that he is released to a civilian hospital for treatment, that evidence in regard to Mr Sandulović’s torture is obtained and retained, that an immediate investigation takes place into the torture of Mr Sandulović, that protection is provided to Mr Sandulović from future torture, and that the politically motivated charges against Mr Sandulović are dropped.
Michael Polak can be contacted by email contact@justiceabroad.co.uk or phone on +44 (0)203 488 2316