FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
In the van they hit me on the head, punched me in the face and kicked me. In the lobby of the BIA headquarters, they took off my shirt and forced me to kneel down and kiss the pictures on the wall of agents who had died in Kosovo.
Bedridden in the giant brick and marble villa that is his home, Serbian opposition politician Nikola Sandulović recounts the attack that he testified left him paralyzed on his right side and unable to walk.
It was January 3 at 15:20 when three vehicles carrying secret service agents of the BIA of Serbia stopped outside his house in the Senjak area of Belgrade. Seated in a black van, with dark windows to prevent him from seeing what would happen next, the masked men quickly told him why they had come: the former businessman and opposition politician had dared to apologize for crimes committed by Serbs when inter-ethnic conflict rocked Kosovo in the late 1990s following the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.
" It was unimaginable ," he told the Observer, recalling the ordeal in his first interview with a British newspaper since the alleged attack.
" The day after I posted the video on social media saying 'I'm sorry' as I placed flowers on the grave of the young girl who, yes, was related to a founder of the Kosovo Liberation Army who led the revolt against Serbian rule, I received threats . Then when the beatings started they hit me so hard that I lost consciousness.
In the van they hit me in the head, punched me in the face and kicked me. In the lobby of the BIA headquarters, they took off my shirt and forced me to kneel down and kiss the pictures on the wall of agents who had died in Kosovo. They kept asking who was behind my decision to visit the burial site, who was bribing me to do such things ," he said.
The torture, according to Sandulović, lasted six hours until he decided not to give any more answers.
“ They sat on both of my legs, pulled my arms and turned my head back, while videotaping [the scenes] and shouting 'traitor. In the end I said: “I will not answer any more questions. Kill me or call a doctor ," he declared.
Admitted that evening to a military hospital, it would be 24 hours before the self-described pacifist was allowed to return home, where police, armed with an arrest warrant, wasted no time in recapturing him.
The next 12 days, with the exception of one night in a state clinic, would be spent in the medical wing of Belgrade's central prison, detained by a prosecutor on suspicion of "inciting racial, national and religious hatred", as the KLA is designated as a terrorist organization by Serbia.
For Aleksandar Vulin, the country's former intelligence chief, who admitted ordering the arrest, Sandulović's actions in support of Kosovo deserved a far greater punishment. BIA agents, he told Novosti newspaper, had indeed taken him, but had not used physical force – tactics that other secret services would undoubtedly have used in such a case.
" If Sandulovic had placed a wreath on Himmler's grave, the Mossad would have killed him... I apologize to Serbia that I cannot do more ," Vulin declared.
Before the alleged attack catapulted the openly pro-Western Sandulović into the pages of the international press, he was a controversial figure on the fringes of the political firmament of a country dominated by Vucic's autocratic rule.
The last time he ran in a national election was in 2016, when his small Republican Serb party won less than 1% of the vote.
" Censorship is crazy. Vucic controls everything. It steals votes and it is impossible to be heard ", he complained.
The Western envoys who demanded Sandulovic's release admitted they had to dig deep into their archives to find out who he was, and they didn't like what they found.
But amid escalating regional tensions, exacerbated by overt Russian meddling across the Balkan peninsula, the effort to cast the politician as a fifth columnist has highlighted fears over Serbia's democratic decline at a time when the EU candidate country is gripped by protests over accusations that Vucic manipulated the last election.
Last week, Čedomir Stojković, the prominent human rights lawyer representing Sandulović, described him as one of the few figures in Serbia who would ever publicly support Kosovo's independence.
" He was attacked in this way because he says things that no one wants to hear. For me, Nikola is more of a political activist and sometimes makes provocative statements, but according to which law, in which country on this planet, placing flowers on the grave of a seven-year-old girl is illegal ," he said.
On Thursday, Michael Polak, a British lawyer, entered Belgrade's Palace of Justice in brogues and a sharp suit with Stojković to file a criminal complaint against "Sandulović's torturers" and the illegal detention.
“ It is extraordinary in a European country in 2024 that someone could be kidnapped from their home by state agents and subjected to this kind of treatment. At no time should there be impunity for torture. According to the European Convention of Human Rights, Serbia has the duty to investigate the allegations and to demand responsibility from the perpetrators ", said the British lawyer.
While later, as he was about to leave the country, Polak was stopped at the Belgrade airport by the police who demanded to know why he was "interfering in Serbian internal affairs". When he was finally allowed to board the plane, he was told that he would not be welcome back in Serbia./ Adapted "Pamphlet" from "The Guradian"
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