The man whose quest for the truth about the murder of his son had turned into an ongoing anti-government protest in Bosnia’s Serb-majority part told N1 in an interview on Wednesday that he has fled the country because Bosnian Serb authorities want to kill him.

Davor Dragicevic is wanted by authorities in Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two semi-autonomous entities within the country, for organising illegal protests and endangering public safety.

“I’m not going to reveal my location, but I’m safe and surrounded by good people. I want to thank all the good people who helped me come to this haven,” Dragicevic said adding that he was not afraid.

He accused Bosnia’s Serb Presidency member Milorad Dodik and the RS Interior Minister Dragan Lukac, both from the strongest Serb nationalist party of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), of wanting to kill him.

“The evidence is there; I don’t know to whom to present it first, the people or the Prosecution. This is a personal vendetta, but they won’t succeed. We will soon dislocate David’s grave. I can’t enter my own house, see my dog, friends or the city I grew up in. That’s the kind the State we live in,” Dragicevic said.

In early 2018, the police of the Republika Srpska entity, one of Bosnia’s two semi-autonomous entities, found a dead body of a 21-year old David Dragicevic. The young man’s family has always claimed that it was impossible that David’s death was “accidental” as was said during the first press conference on this case.

Due to the public disturbance and constant protests caused by the case, the National Assembly of the RS formed a Board of Inquiry with the aim of identifying the relevant circumstances of this young man's death.

After the Board concluded that there were elements for the suspicion that he could have been killed, the ruling coalition of delegates rejected the Board’s report saying that only by the competent prosecutor's office can qualify the case.

The District Prosecutor's Office of Banjaluka submitted, in early July, an order to investigate the murder of David Dragicevic against several unknown persons. According to the details of the order, David Dragicevic “either ran away from the perpetrators and fell down the steep banks of the River Crkvena from a height of around 4.5 meters or, the perpetrators pushed him into the river from the banks when he drowned shortly after hitting the water.”

Dragicevic noted that he left Bosnia because he was afraid for his life.

“It’s not an asylum nor did I run away. I simply moved out of the limelight so that I wouldn’t get killed. They won’t get rid of me that easily,”

He said he lost all trust in state institutions and the international community, from which he said he received no support.

“We never received any support from them. I was unfoundedly arrested and the international community and the State did nothing. We protested peacefully for ten months and no one reacted. They won’t react until someone gets hurt,” Dragicevic said.

He concluded he will not return to Bosnia where he believes would be locked up.