‘Political witch hunt’: Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic lashes Scott Morrison

Serbian president launches extraordinary personal attack against Scott Morrison as Novak Djokovic’s family alleges the tennis star is enduring ‘terrible’ conditions.

Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic has accused Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison of a ‘political witch hunt’ over the detention of world number one tennis player Novak Djokovic. Picture: File

Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic has launched an extraordinary personal attack against Scott Morrison, claiming Novak Djokovic’s denial of entry and subsequent detention was a “political witch hunt”.

Djokovic’s brother, Djordje, also claimed that the nine-time Australian Open winner was enduring “terrible” detention conditions and revealed a bid to have his deportation order overturned was pursued on legal advice because he otherwise faced being barred from re-entering Australia for three years.

Djordje passed on the first message sent to him from Djokovic while in detention, which said: “God sees everything, morality and ethics as the highest ideals are stars leading us to the spiritual rise. My gain is spiritual, and they only have material benefits”.

Djordje said: “He is being treated as a criminal even though he has not violated any law”. He revealed his brother had been in contact with Tennis Australia long before he left for Melbourne and they had reached an agreement about a medical exemption.

“He had the same document (for a medical exemption) as players who are already there,” he said, describing Djokovic’s situation as the “greatest sporting and diplomatic scandal”.

In further deterioration of diplomatic relations between Canberra and Belgrade, Mr Vucic directly implicated Mr Morrison in acting discriminately and said it was a “relentless political pursuit”.

The anger across Serbia about Djokovic’s situation intensified on Thursday when a Melbourne court ruled he was not allowed to move out of detention to his rented apartment nor allowed out to continue practising for the Australian Open.

Djokovic’s plight has shone an international spotlight on Australia’s tight border controls and conditions under which asylum seekers are held.

“What is not fair play is the political witch hunt, by everybody including the Australian Prime Minister, pretending that the rules apply to all,” Mr Vucic said.

“I fear that this relentless political pursuit of Novak will continue until the moment they can prove something, because when you cannot defeat somebody then you turn to these type of things.’’

Serbian assistant foreign minister Vlada Maric has twice spoken to Australia’s ambassador in Belgrade asking for explanations why Djokovic has been detained and the basic conditions he has endured. Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić has directly pleaded, unsuccessfully, to the ambassador for Djokovic to be able to move out of the hotel detention facility.

Djokovic’s plight, being housed in the Park Hotel where asylum seekers are detained until his court date on Monday, has infuriated his supporters and family.

Mr Vucic described Djokovic’s treatment as being “infamous in the proper sense of the term.”

Djokovic’s mother Dijana said Djokovic has had difficulty sleeping: “It is terrible, terrible accommodation, it is just a small immigration hotel, if it’s a hotel at all, with bugs. It is so dirty and the food is so terrible, but they don’t want to give him any chance to move on to better house he has already rented.”

Djokovic’s father Srdjan attacked “idiot” Australian officials who he accused of wanting to “humiliate” his son.

“Novak and his team filed the same type of documents as those 25 other tennis players and they didn’t have any problems, just Novak,” he said.

“They want to humiliate him. They could have said, ‘don’t come Novak’ and that would have been okay. But no, they wanted to humiliate him and they’re still keeping him in prison.

“He’s not in detention, he’s in prison. They took all of his stuff, even his wallet. They left him with just a phone and no change of clothes, nowhere to wash his face. He’s in prison. Our pride is a prisoner of these idiots.”

About a thousand Djokovic supporters rallied in front of the National Assembly in Belgrade on Thursday, and were addressed by the Djokovic family.

Srdjan Djokovic told the crowd: “Serbs and all other free nations of the world, the moment has come to refuse being oppressed. We are part of the free world, more than seven billions of us, and we can’t be prisoners of those … the name of their prime minister Scott Morrison says it all.’’

In Serbian, Mr Morrison’s name is pronounced “Skot”, which is something akin to “thug”.

Srdjan Djokovic added: “We are not here to defame anyone, but to support our Nole. He is the heart of Serbia, our pride and joy.”

In London, British prime minister Boris Johnson supported Australia’s strong pro-vaccination stance. When asked about the Djokovic controversy, Mr Johnson said: “It’s a matter for Australia and their friendly government. That’s a matter for them but clearly I share very strongly their view of the Australian authorities that it’s a very good idea to get vaccinated”.

Mr Johnson also hit out at anti-vaxxers who spouted “mumbo jumbo” on social media.