It's morning. It's about 20 degrees outside. The sun has already risen, and on the sidewalk in front of the National Assembly, a young man, a member, is on hunger strike for the fifth day LGBT community, who on February 14, the police broke into the apartment where he lives with his roommate and subjected him to, as he says, "brutality, torture, mental, physical and sexual abuse".
He is sitting with a book in one hand and a cigarette in the other hand. Next to him is a backpack, a hat and several bottles of water. There is an inscription on the fence: "I am on hunger strike, I am not silent for justice".
In an interview with "Vreme", Andrej Obradović speaks quietly, because he cannot speak louder, his thoughts are wandering, but he says he is fine.
"Yesterday I got a little sick because of the heat, there were a lot of press teams, a lot of people gathered." They gave me medical help and I am not in danger at the moment, although the fourth and fifth day of the strike is a transitional period. However, my body is young and tolerates it well. I don't feel hungry, I am mentally stable and persistent in this", says Obradović.
People who pass by stop, read what is written on the fence and approach with questions: "Are you okay?", "Do you need more water?".
"During the day, my friends visit me. I am also visited by my mother, who has come out publicly a couple of times. However, he is not in good physical condition due to all the stress. Some MPs, shift heads in the Assembly also visit me, charging my external charger. Yesterday they brought me into the Assembly because the temperature was very high, and I was announced today and the following days as a guest. They told me that if that is my wish, I have the right to stay in the Assembly from 10 a.m. to 15:30 p.m. because that is the procedure for guests", explains Obradović.
He expects the fulfillment of his demands in the next few days.
What are the requirements?
He says that he has three demands, and that the first is the urgent criminal prosecution of inspectors Strahinja Vuković and Dubravko Despotović, who "participated in the case and did not act according to the order".
"The second request is the identification of all unidentified persons who participated in the abuse, torture and torture in the apartment and the third request is the identification of the unidentified technician who presented himself as a doctor at the Laza Lazarevic facility when, after the whole event, I received an urgent referral from the Emergency Center for that facility . The technician refused to see me, and all of this was accompanied by very ugly, insulting comments", explains Obradović.
What a word from institutions
Yesterday, explains Obradović, the prosecutor from the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office (OJT) invited him to go tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9:30 a.m. and reconstruct the entire event and provide additional information.
Branka Gajić, spokeswoman for the First OJT in Belgrade, is in favor Today stated that the prosecution is actively acting on the criminal complaint filed by Andrej and his roommate, as well as the non-governmental organization "Da se zna".
He emphasizes that in the submitted criminal reports, it is not stated which exact crime the police officers are charged with.
"The criminal complaint did not define a criminal offense, but it was stated that it was filed because of the unprofessional conduct of the police officers of the Belgrade Police Station. The Prosecutor's Office establishes the existence of the elements of the criminal offense of Abuse and torture or some other criminal offense for which the prosecution is undertaken ex officio. The Prosecutor's Office also received a report from the Department of Internal Control of the MUP, which carried out actions within its jurisdiction. After the prosecution gathers all the information in order to determine the factual situation, it will be decided whether the prosecution will initiate criminal charges and further investigation," said the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade.
Possible radicalization - going on a hunger strike
To this, Andrej Obradović says that the spokeswoman of the First OJT presented "a series of disinformation in an attempt to deceive the public", and that if the institutions allow him, he will initiate disciplinary proceedings against her.
"The criminal report extends to eight pages and it is clearly stated which criminal acts were committed, not only by the inspectors, but also by public authorities, as well as by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of New Belgrade," says Obradović.
He adds that he has set a deadline if one of the competent institutions does not respond by tomorrow evening and if someone does not contact him regarding the request, "and the invitation to the Prosecutor's Office was not my request, although it is certainly useful", he announced that he will further radicalize the strike .
And that would mean, he says, possibly going on a hunger strike.
He says that he went on strike not only for himself but also for the sake of other victims of violence whose voices remained silent, whose cases never received an epilogue.
He concludes that he was forced to make this move by a "great obstruction of justice" where at one point the prosecutor, who invited him for an interview yesterday, told him through a third person that "he will not even be invited to the hearing".
