Pescanik portal columnist Dejan Ilic was arrested after answering a summons for questioning at a police station, opposition Green-Left party leader Radomir Lazovic said on Thursday.
Lazovic said that the arrest is “an act of regime repression over a man who called for a peaceful solution to the crisis in the country”.
Ilic told N1 earlier that he was summoned to the police late on Wednesday evening and the request was repeated this morning, only this time he was ordered to report and that he was under investigation for allegedly “inciting panic.”
Ilic told Pescanik that he believes the summons has to do with his recent interview on N1 TV a part of which was taken out of context and later featured in the daily Politika under the headline, “Transitional Government or Bloodshed.”
“They showed up at my house around 9:30 pm, according to my mother, but I wasn’t there. Then, around 10:30, they called me asking me, in a friendly manner, to come in for an interview. I told them it was late, that I didn’t want to come alone, that I couldn’t call a lawyer in the middle of the night, and that I’d get in touch the next morning. The officer insisted the meeting had to happen that night, but when I asked what was so urgent, he just repeated that it ‘had to happen,’” Ilic recounted.
He linked the incident to what he described as a months-long pattern by Politika—monitoring independent media and isolating statements that can be spun as threats.
“Politika published an excerpt from my April 2 appearance on N1, where I said that a transitional government is far better than bloodshed in the streets. I assume that’s what this is all about—though who exactly Politika thinks I’m threatening, I have no idea,” he said.
In its report, Politika claimed that “Pescanik columnist Dejan Ilic made disturbing public remarks, stating that only a transitional government could prevent bloodshed in Serbia.”
Ilic emphasized that he wasn’t making a claim because claims require solid evidence, but that he was offering an interpretation of the situation.
“My message wasn’t directed at the authorities, but at the opposition and students, for them to come to an agreement on forming a transitional government, because that is probably the most peaceful way out of this crisis that we currently face. I think any reasonable person would understand I was advocating for a peaceful solution. I even said that if someone from the ruling SNS (Serbian Progressive Party) party needed to be part of that government, so be it—better that than violence in the streets,” he added.
However, he said, taking this out of context, Politika interpreted it as a threat.
The police officer who contacted him on Wednesday night didn’t follow up, but another one called this morning, informing him that he is now officially suspected of inciting panic.
“He said a public prosecutor would also be present. He was extremely polite and tried to make it sound like it’s ‘no big deal.’ But as we have learned over the years that nothing is ever as harmless as it seems, I called my lawyer who told me this is a very serious charge and that we need to think carefully about how to proceed,” said Ilic, adding that he plans to attend the questioning in the company of his lawyer.
“I think they (the authorities) are besides themselves, and are now seeing enemies everywhere. It’s surreal that someone like me could be viewed as a threat. If that’s the case, then they really have no one left to target. They are just grabbing at random. And even that tiny snippet they pulled from my interview, if you take a closer look, is clearly a call for a peaceful resolution, not a threat,” Ilic explained.
He says he doesn’t know why the government is doing this, and that they keep calling for a peaceful resolution, but their actions suggest otherwise.
“They have clearly entered a new phase, that’s crystal clear, and that phase will include much more violence, more threats, more detentions. I don’t know how it ends. But I do know that everyone involved in this rebellion has to take this into account, as well as that we don’t have much time for agreements. We need solutions—fast. I’m going to use a word that might again be twisted into a threat or seen as ‘inciting panic’—but the entire opposition front needs to unite, face this regime, and say: ‘We stand for a peaceful solution, here is a way out of this crisis. We are holding out our hand. The responsibility for what happens next lies with you,’” said Ilic.
Source: N1
