Professor Marija Vasić, accused of preparing a coup d'état, reveals what everyday life looks like behind prison doors and how the state treats those who dare to think differently
Professor Marija Vasić, who was released from house arrest in which she was held for six months after 66 days of detention, stated that the conditions in detention in Serbia are worse than in prison, and then presented all the details of her stay there.
"You have to get up from your chair or bed when someone comes in, if they are taking you out of the cell you have to walk on the left side, if someone comes by turn your head towards the wall, don't address anyone and don't ask anyone anything," she told N1.
She pointed out that they "made sure" that everything was dehumanized - right down to maintaining hygiene.
"Three times a week you have a shower and they lock you in cabins, you don't know how long you'll be locked in, whether it's five minutes or an hour, it depends on where the guards have gone and when they'll be back," she stated.
She also stated that in April they took her to Beograd to examine phones and laptops - with handcuffs on the hands and feet.
"As the truck brakes, you fly away because you can't grab onto anything, because your hands and feet are tied," she said.
She also pointed out that time stands still in custody. "You go for a walk once a day, if the weather isn't bad and if they let you out that day at all, you don't know if it will be at eight in the morning or five in the afternoon. You hear some sounds over that fence, six meters high. You hear some children, cars - some life is going on, people live somewhere, and your life has absolutely stopped," she said.
"I had to go on hunger strike"
Vasić said that there was the least fear, and that she was in a state of shock. "If it's true that everything we read and learn in life prepares us for the moment we're in - I ended up in detention with the book 'Why didn't you kill yourself' by Viktor Frankl, it's my favorite book and I teach about logotherapy. The way he described the stages of consciousness of the inmates when entering the camp, those are the same stages as when entering detention. It's the first state of shock, where everything happens to someone else and not you," she explained.
"We are left to our judiciary, I can't say that I expect anything. I am left to the political will, because this is not a legal, but a political process," she pointed out.
Speaking about the hunger strike, she states that she decided to take that step after reading on television that their detention was extended for 30 days, and that no one informed them about it.
"That's when I decided to protest in the only possible way, and that was with my own life, because everything else had already been taken from me," she said and added that every day they took her blood and measured her glucose in order to, as she states, "check if she is really on hunger and thirst strike or if she just announced something like that."
She explained that after a couple of days, they transferred her to the Central Prison by ambulance, by "cramming her into the ambulance and leaving her on the ground".
"I remember lying on the gurney for a while and someone said he couldn't drive while the woman was on the ground. Someone picked me up, tied me up, put me in the seat and they drove me completely dehydrated after more than 50 hours without food or water," she said.
She added that the scene she can't forget is when they opened the door of the van and a whole line of medical staff was waiting ready to take her. "When I saw the women crying, they saw the state I was in - the women stood and cried," she stated and added that they put her on a stretcher and ran through the hospital, because, as she says, those were critical minutes for her.
"I don't know if I still have a job"
"Each medical examination was supervised by at least two policemen - so that no one would say anything by accident. I did not know that they (the family) did not know where I was, after three days I asked the doctor why I had no visits, and she replied that no one asked to visit me. I said that it was not possible and of course that turned out to be not true," she said.
Vasić said that they did not even know when she was dismissed from CZ. "I saw my husband when he got out of the ambulance, they passed behind him and I asked if someone could tell him that I was released, they told me that there is no problem, because he knows," she said.
The teacher of Jova's high school stated that she would go tomorrow to take over the class schedule and see if she still had a job or if she had been fired, because she had not received any documentation or letters from the school for seven months, nor had anyone contacted her. "In that school, it is completely scattered even for much simpler things, such as making a schedule of classes in which teachers will not have 12 breaks," she added.
She stated that she is most looking forward to seeing her students soon.
We remind you that Marija Vasić, Lazar Dinić and Lado Jovović, accused of allegedly preparing a coup before the protest in Belgrade on March 15, were released from house arrest.
Source: H1
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