Banja Luka mayor detained at Croatia border after refusing luggage search

Croatian police said Stanivukovic was stopped at the Stara Gradiska border crossing shortly after 10 pm on Monday after declining a luggage search, an offence under the State Border Control Act. He was taken into custody for a minor offence and released at around 2 am.

In a social media post, Stanivukovic confirmed the detention, saying he refused to allow police to “detain, search and take his private belongings for the fourteenth time and have them sniffed by dogs.” He described the situation as “a matter of attitude towards Serbs”.

His associates held a press conference outside the Croatian consulate in Banja Luka on Tuesday. Dragan Milanovic of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) said they were protesting the mayor’s repeated detentions, claiming they breach the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of movement.

He accused Croatian police of inhumane treatment and called on officials in the Republika Srpska entity and at the Bosnia and Herzegovina level to protest to Croatian authorities.

Republika Srpska Prime Minister Savo Minic said he would ask the entity’s interior minister to seek detailed information from Croatia’s Interior Ministry, adding that the reasons for Stanivukovic’s detention must be clarified.