Police banned all future gatherings of the ‘Justice for David’ group due to “continuous disturbances of public order and peace” and continues to search for its organisers, including Davor Dragicevic, the father of the young man whose murder sparked the protests and who is currently nowhere to be found.
Dragicevic’s lawyer, Ifet Feraget, told N1 that he was worried about his client.
“I am worried because I have since yesterday morning not heard from Davor and I don’t know where he is,”Feraget told N1, appealing for the focus to be brought back to the investigation into the murder of David Dragicevic and for all those who have intentionally blocked the investigation to face justice.
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The father’s quest for truth and justice has grown over the past nine months into the biggest anti-government protests Bosnia has ever seen. He believes that top officials within the Interior Ministry of Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia's semi-autonomous Serb-dominated entity, are hiding the perpetrators of his son's murder.
Police said in a press release that some of those who participated in the Sunday protest had committed various offences.
“The organisers of the public gathering did not respect the legal obligations, as was the case with the previous gatherings, and took a protest walk through the city together with other participants, during which they committed several offences, while there is reasonable doubt that they even committed some criminal acts,” a police statement said.
Officers detained several people during the protest and blamed the members of the ‘Justice for David’ group for disrupting a concert that was supposed to take place by damaging the equipment.
They issued arrest warrants against five people, including Davor Dragicevic.
Banja Luka police are also searching for Drasko Stanivukovic, a member of the opposition Party for Demortic Progress (PDP) who was shortly detained on Tuesday.
“Really? An arrest warrant? I’m not home and I won’t be there tonight. I will report to them whenever I feel like it. I don’t have time now, Minister, I’m talking to the people. That’s spite, pride and dignity,” Stanivukovic said in a live Facebook appearance from an unknown location.
“My goal is for us to build up a new, better system, to make institutions do their job,” he said, asking “where is Davor? Why are you detaining young people?”
Apart from him and Dragicevic, police also said they are searching for Stefan Blagic, the head of the local ‘Re-start’ NGO.
According to PDP leader Borislav Borenovic, the police “attacked” the peaceful protesters on Sunday evening and began detaining them as they were leaving the Krajina Square.
“I strongly condemn the brutality of the police,” he said.
Borenovic was also detained last Tuesday along with Davor Dragicevic, David’s mother, Suzana Radanovic, Stanivukovic and others, which caused a scuffle between citizens and police.
“This government has brought on the worst divisions among the people in the history of Republika Srpska, so I call upon them to stop using regime-affiliated media to persecute people who are seeking justice creating in this way even deeper divisions,” he added, and once again asked all RS institutions, “Who killed David Dragicevic?”
“We attended the gathering as people, citizens of Banja Luka, parents, regardless of the public nature of our work, and we firmly reject malicious statements that the Party of Democratic Progress is the organiser of yesterday’s gathering,” he concluded.
