Protest in Leposavic in support of the arrested Nebojsa Virijevic

This morning, a protest was held in front of the Leposavic municipality building in support of Nebojsa Virijevic, who was recently arrested, and the gathering included employees of the "Veselo detinjstvo" preschool institution from Lesak, his family, and a large number of citizens.

The protest is directed against the attempt of illegal entry by new workers into the municipal building, which is the reason for Virijevic's arrest, following a previous protest.

Colleagues and family members carried banners with inscriptions like "Give us back our freedom, let children live in peace," "Freedom for Nebojsa," and "Why Nebojsa?".

As a form of protest, participants attached drawings of targets to their chests, and whistles were heard. Following this, the participants covered their mouths with tape. This gesture aimed to express their displeasure over the denial of their rights to speech and freedom and also to send a message that each of them could be a target for arrest in the future.

Milos Virijevic, the son of Nebojsa, said that his father had only wanted to highlight the repression that was being carried out against the Serbian population.

"Today, we are here to express our protest on behalf of my father, Nebojsa, who is unjustly imprisoned and has been in custody for seven days now. He had been present here every day for the past three months. He came as he always did to express his dissatisfaction with the tense situation and repression against the Serbian population, and to support his colleagues, who also supported him. Unfortunately, he was reported by a person of Serbian nationality based on verbal grounds, which, from a legal perspective, makes it impossible to detain him. However, unfortunately, this is the way it is. A politically fabricated process where no one is guilty until proven Serbian. I don't know what else to say. Our whole family is shaken. We will fight for him, and he needs to endure it for us. We have been informed by his lawyer that he is well and that we can visit him once a week. The family visited him on Monday in Mitrovica, and I hope he will be fine," Milos Virijevic said.

Olja Jasnic, the Director of the "Veselo detinjstvo" preschool institution, emphasized during the gathering that the more pressure on the citizens, the more they would be united and determined.

"We have gathered here today to express our dissatisfaction with the arrest of our colleague Nebojsa Virijevic. We are all aware that his arrest is politically motivated, aiming to intimidate these people who have been peacefully protesting here for 90 days due to the usurpation of our municipal building, which is essential for the entire population of Leposavic and all institutions within our municipality. We are here every day, and we will remain here until those gentlemen who have seized our municipality leave. We can tell them that they are gravely mistaken, that because of what they are doing, we are even more united and will persist in the struggle for fundamental human rights guaranteed by the United Nations Convention for all people on this planet, regardless of religion and nationality," Jasnic stated.

Virijevic was arrested on August 18, two days after protesting alongside his fellow citizens against the attempted entry of the Deputy Minister for Communities and Returns, Radojica Radomirovic, whom he allegedly threatened, into the municipal building.

A day after his arrest, the Basic Court in Pristina ordered his detention for 30 days.