Crowd gathers to support arrested activist farmer

A Nova S reporter said that the protest was staged while farmer Zlatko Kokanovic was being interrogated by prosecutors who charged him with assaulting the police at a March 1 protest. Kokanovic and other farmers and activists tried to block a border crossing with Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was accused of driving his tractor into a police cordon. The farmer was arrested, released and then arrested again and order held for 30 days.

Activists of the Ne Damo Jadar (Won’t give up Jadar) organization which Kokanovic is part of said he is being questioned in jail instead of in Loznica where the alleged assault was committed because there was no transportation. One of the activists said that situation is absurd adding that the absence of trasportation is just an excuse for the fear of the authorities.

Kokanovic has been active in protests both against plans to open a lithium mine in his native Jadar area of western Serbia and in the student-led anti-regime protests following the collapse of a concrete canopy at Novi Sad Railway Station which claimed 16 lives.