One of the most vocal opposition lawmakers in the Serb-majority entity of Republika Srpska (RS), Drasko Stanivukovic, said he is leaving the country in the next couple of days because he fears for his safety.
“I need to be very careful, so I probably won’t be in the country or the RS. I won’t be able to cross the border today, but I might do it over the weekend,” Stanivukovic said. “I’m doing this out of fear for my safety.”
Stanivukovic came to the spotlight after fiercely criticising the ruling party in this entity, the nationalist Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, and joining the ‘Justice for David’ protests, considered to be the largest anti-government protest the Serb-majority part of the country has ever seen.
The protests were sparked by the murder of David Dragicevic, a 21-year-old who died under unresolved circumstances. Initially, authorities said that his death was an accident, but his family never believed that explanation and forced the RS Parliament to form a commission which reexamined the evidence and concluded that David was murdered. Unfortunately, the investigation produced no results yet.
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The Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) supports Stanivukovic as one of its most prominent members and the party said it would ask the RS Interior Ministry to provide him with physical protection, Anja Petrovic, the PDP spokesperson said.
The 25-year-old Stanivukovic was arrested several times on various charges during Justice for David and other anti-governmental protests. Speaking to N1, he said he has over 30,000 marks (some €15,000) worth of minor offences which he has to pay, as a result of all those arrests.
Last Sunday, unknown perpetrators threw rocks at his car, parked at the family home in Banja Luka. The entity police then said they are investigating the case, with no other details to spare for the press.
Drasko Stanivukovic is the youngest lawmaker in the RS National Assembly, having won more than 20,000 votes at the October 2018 general election.
(€ 1 = 1.95 marks)
