Departure of tennis star
“Assassination attempt” on Djokovic: Father rages with anger, Serbia’s government accuses Australia of lying
Novak Djokovic case: Aleksandar Vucic, President of Serbia, raises serious allegations against the authorities in Australia
© Hannah McKay / Getty Images
After the permanent withdrawal of his visa for Australia, Novak Djokovic has left the country. The government in Serbia accuses the authorities of a “witch hunt” on the Serbian tennis star.
It was a legal stalemate in which Novak Djokovic finally lost: one day before the start of the Australian Open, the tennis ace failed with his appeal against the cancellation of the visa and had to leave Australia (Read more about this here). The Corona thriller about the residence permit of the Serbian world number one is causing upsets, especially in his home country.
Srdjan Djokovic, the father of the top athlete, left no doubt in an Instagram story what he thinks of the court decision: “The assassination attempt on the best athlete in the world is over, 50 bullets in Novak’s chest,” he wrote.
© Screenshot: @srdjandjokovic_
Serbian government outraged: Novak Djokovic was “treated like a mass murderer”.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also sharply criticized the Australian authorities’ handling of the tennis star. Since his arrival in Australia, the unvaccinated top athlete has been “harassed and tortured,” Vucic told the British BBC on Sunday. He was “treated like a mass murderer”.
The harassment of Djokovic had reached “unprecedented proportions”, said Vucic in the Serbian media. A “witch hunt” had been unleashed against him, and the media had created a “lynch mood”. “They wanted to make Novak an example of how the world order works.” But Djokovic could “with his head held high”. Serbia to return.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic made a similar statement. She was enraged that the government lawyer in the case before the federal court explained that in Serbia less than 50 percent of the population was double vaccinated. This is an “open lie”, said Brnabic. “We currently have 58 percent fully vaccinated and 37 percent received the booster.” However, the numbers that Brnabic gave probably referred to the proportion of vaccinated among the adult population. According to “Our World in Data”, it was 47 percent of the total population.