Marija Vasić will start a hunger strike if the detention is not lifted

One of the defenders of the six detained activists and students, lawyer Aleksandar Petrović, said on Friday (May 9) that his client, a professor at the "Jovan Jovanović Zmaj" Gymnasium from Novi Sad Marija Vasić, announced that if the detention is not lifted, she will go on a hunger strike.

"I can advise her not to do that, because of her health, but I can't even stop her. She, like the other defendants, are victims of purely political persecution, and they are the only political prisoners in Europe," Petrović said at the press conference.

Marija Vasić, deputy president of the Novi Sad board Movement of free citizens (PSG) has been in custody for almost two months, as well as student and activists Lazar Dinić, Davor Stefanović, Srđan Đurić, Mladen Cvijetić and Lado Jovović.

They are eaten by bedbugs.

The defense attorneys also spoke about the psychophysical condition of their defendants and said that they are mostly fine considering the difficult circumstances they are in, but that they are "eaten by bugs."

They also stated that they are in cells with seven or eight people, among whom, as they added, there is also a murderer and a drug dealer.

They added that by the end of the day they expect a decision on the appeal filed by the defense attorneys with the request to end their detention.

One of the defense attorneys, Vladimir Horovic, stated that the evidence in that case was collected illegally, and the whole procedure is completely illegal, because, as he stated, it is based on a criminal complaint that contains the opinion of the police about what the defendants were thinking.

"It's called the tort of opinion. So, the police impose what someone thought, without providing evidence of what someone said or did so that the court can conclude what the defendant's intention was. That's why this procedure is completely illegal," Horowitz said.

He added that the prosecutor's office and the court had to and were obliged to act on such a criminal report.

"They ignored the legal and constitutional postulate of the criminal legislation, that is the abuse of the prosecution and the court," said Horovic.

He assessed that such ignoring of the law and the Constitution is "terrible".

"Six young people, who have never been convicted, have been in custody for almost two months," Horovic said, adding that their detention was ordered illegally.

The European Parliament demanded the release of the activists

The European Parliament, in the Resolution it adopted a few days ago, requested the release from detention of opposition and student activists who have been in custody in Novi Sad since mid-March.

"The European Parliament calls on the Serbian authorities to release Marija Vasić, Lazar Dinić, Mladen Cvijetić, Lado Jovović, Srđan Đurić and Davor Stefanović from detention," states the Resolution, which was adopted on the proposal of the European Parliament's rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula.

The European Parliament expressed regret "for the alleged illegal wiretapping" and detention of five activists from the opposition PSG and one student from the organization Students against authoritarian government (STAV) in March 2025, as well as due to the issuing of warrants for other STAV activists.

What happened?

On the evening of March 13, several regime television stations broadcast a recording of a conversation between members of the Novi Sad opposition and activists, where various scenarios of a large student protest were discussed. March 15. Activists and students are soon according to the regime media declared terrorists who planned to break into the Radio and Television of Serbia and the National Assembly, and were soon arrested on suspicion of "preparation of an act against the constitutional order and security of Serbia in complicity".

The next day they arrested, and on March 16, the High Court in Novi Sad ordered the arrestees to be detained for 30 days. The police also searched the apartments of activists who are currently not in Serbia.

At the end of the first 30 days of detention, the judge for preliminary proceedings Tatjana Đurašković extended them On April 11, he was detained for another 30 days.

The defenders of the students and activists then asked the judge Tatjana Đurašković to separate from the case file the evidence that cannot be used in the criminal proceedings, because it was not collected in accordance with the law, and that after that they should all be released from custody, but she refused.

This 30-day detention extension expires in a few days.

The prosecutor in this case is Slobodan Josimović, who also acts in the "Canopy" case.

In the explanation of that decision, it is stated that the detention was also determined because of the "danger of repeating the criminal act, because the end of the current protests of citizens and students is still not in sight".

Who is in custody and who is being sought?
Five members of the Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) from Novi Sad - Marija Vasić, Lado Jovović, Mladen Cvijetić, Davor Stefanović and Srđan Đurić and a student from the organization Stav Lazar Dinić were accused of undermining, or preparing to violently overthrow, the constitutional order of Serbia.

A warrant has been issued for six more activists from the organization Stav, as they are unavailable to the prosecuting authorities, and detention has been ordered for them, which will come into effect when they enter the country.
They are Mila Pajić, Branislav Đorđević, Anja Pitulić and Jovan Dražić, as well as Doroteja Antić and Dejan Bagarić.

On Thursday morning, March 13, six activists of the STAV organization traveled to the Human Rights Festival "Znadu" in Dubrovnik, where it was previously agreed that they would participate in one of the panels, where they were supposed to talk about the student protests in Serbia, and the panel was called "Pump!".

The students who found this news in Dubrovnik have not returned to Serbia since then, and in the meantime, all of their apartments where they live have been searched.

Source: Danas/Beta