Drazen Zivkovic, a journalist of the daily newspaper “Dan”, during a protest on 17/10/2015 was unlawfully arrested. He attended the action of breaking up a protest in front of the Parliament building as a journalist, and was on his duty, recording and taking pictures of events. Then the person in civilian clothes, with no police markings and without identifying himself, although Zivkovic asked for his identification, deprived him of freedom.
He was taken to the Security Center in a vehicle without police markings, where he was held for six hours, awithout being said why he was deprived of liberty, or what were his rights. Nearly six hours later, he was told that misdemeanor charges would be brought against him because he had disobeyed the orders of a police officer, what later turned out to be false. The same police officer said that Zivkovic moved whenever warned, but that he was arrested because he did not want to stop taking pictures of events from the scene. Against Zivkovic misdemeanor charges were raised for violations referred to in Article 12 of the Law on Public Peace and Order. The testimony of the police officers confirmed that he acted in accordance with orders and that he was at a distance of seven or eight meters from the place of intervention of the police, which means that he did not jeopardize the work of police officers. It has been thus confirmed that he was unlawfully deprived of liberty while he was doing his job.
In connection with the unlawfull detention, Zivkovic has sought an amicable settlement to the Ministry of Internal Affairs which, according to unofficial information, rejected it.
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