As the Administration for the Implementation of Criminal Sanctions told 021, a Novi Sad-based outlet, Jovičić’s health condition remains unchanged and is being monitored daily by doctors at the Special Prison Hospital in Belgrade.
“All medical protocols applied to individuals who are not consuming food have also been applied in this case,” they reportedly told 021.
From the moment student Bogdan Jovičić started his hunger strike on September 12, all his vital health-related parameters were monitored daily by prison staff. They added that this practice continued when the student was transferred to the Special Prison Hospital in Belgrade on September 17.
The police initially arrested Bogdan Jovičić following protests in Novi Sad in mid-August, during which the offices of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party were vandalized. He has been charged with violent behavior at a public gathering, and decided to go on a hunger strike when the Higher Court in Novi Sad extended his one-month detention for another 30 days.
On September 19, while Jovičić was on hunger strike, the Higher Court in Novi Sad rejected his lawyer’s appeal against the extension of his detention.
Protests in support of the student have been organized in several cities across Serbia and a petition calling for Bogdan Jovičić’s release from prison has been signed by more than 60,000 people.
The student wrote a letter from prison that has been read at many protests, in which he states: “I spent a month in detention without heightening tensions, thinking that they would have to release me so I could defend myself. Since it is clear they have no such intention and seek to present me as one of the nation’s greatest enemies, I view a hunger strike as the only remaining course of action left for me.”
M.B.; A.M.
