Drasko Stanivukovic, the opposition politician from Bosnia’s Serb-majority Republika Srpska region, was apprehended in Montenegro this weekend and ordered to leave the country, his team confirmed on social networks on Saturday.
According to information on Stanivukovic’s Facebook page, the politician attended a religious procession in the country, whose residents are voting in parliamentary elections this Sunday.
“I have just been released from the police precinct and must leave Montenegro within an hour under police escort,” Stanivukovic wrote, adding that he is not allowed the entrance to that country for a one-year period.
Снимак привођења Драшка Станивуковића у Црној Гори.
Драшко тим. pic.twitter.com/kN4w37eyON
— Драшко Станивуковић (@Stanivukovic_D) August 29, 2020
He slammed the Montenegrin authorities for such a treatment, directly accusing current President Milo Djukanovic of that.
“Unfortunately, I am witnessing the violation of fundamental human and civil rights as well as religious freedoms by Milo Djukanovic’s regime. No surrender! Victory is the only option,” said Bosnian Serb politician, the senior official of the opposition PDP party.
Unofficially, the police apprehended Stanivukovic in an apartment in Niksic and took him to the precinct for interrogation.
PDP leader Branislav Borenovic assessed the situation as “insulting” for Republika Srpska and Bosnia as a whole.
“Scandalous apprehension of the parliamentarian Stanivukovic. This is an insult for Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also a huge stain on the current authority of Montenegro,” he underlined.
