The body of the double-headed eagle on the flag of Serbia is covered by two handwritten banners - with red bold letters "I'm on hunger strike, for justice I'm not silent" and green "Hunger Strike".
For five days now, gay young man Andrej Obradović has been protesting in front of the Serbian Parliament, in the very center of Belgrade, demanding that the police officers who he accuses of allegedly abusing him and his roommate during a search of their apartment in mid-February in the Serbian capital be punished.
The complaint against the work of police officers, addressed to the Department of Internal Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP), has meanwhile been rejected and the procedure is now before the second-level Complaints Commission, said the organization "Da se zna".
"Unfortunately, we cannot completely eradicate violence, but we can try to ensure that the judicial authorities do their job and that the perpetrators are held accountable," 19-year-old Andrej told the BBC in Serbian while sitting in the strong April sun in front of the metal fence over which unfurled faded flag of Serbia.
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His mother and the non-governmental organization "Da se zna" previously accused police officers of "brutality" during the search of the apartment where Andrej and his roommate lived in the Belgrade neighborhood of Karaburma.
"One of the officers brought the gay guy's head close to his pants, trying to simulate oral sex.
"The other put his hands in his pants, touching the genitals of a 20-year-old guy," said Bojan Lazić, a lawyer for the "Da se zna" organization, based on the statement of the young man with whom he spoke two days after the event.
The MUP stated at the time that it had launched an investigation into the allegations and that police officers would be sanctioned if it was found that they had exceeded their authority.
Asked if he can talk about the details of the events that started the protest, Andrej Obradović says that "since he is on hunger strike, he is not able to reconstruct the event".
Everything previously told by the "Da se zna" organization at the press conference is "absolutely true", claims this young man.
Obradović demands that the police officers, whose names and surnames he cites, be suspended from their jobs and prosecuted criminally.
He previously did not want to advertise, and instead his mother and the "Da se zna" organization came forward.
Three days after he started his hunger strike, Obradović was called to testify in the First Basic Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday, April 17.
"After that, I'm coming back to continue the hunger strike, because the summons to the prosecutor's office is not a fulfillment of my demands," he says.
On Tuesday, he told the BBC that he was ready for "more radical moves" and that he would start a thirst strike on Wednesday, that is, he would stop taking water if his demands were not met.
On Monday, Obradović was visited by the Protector of Citizens, who had previously initiated the MUP control procedure regarding the accusations.
"We received notifications from the Ministry of Interior.
"I asked the organization 'Da se zna' to provide us with their information. We will talk to Andrej and the girl who was with him in the apartment," says Zoran Pašalić, the protector of citizens, for the BBC in Serbian.
Pašalić did not want to comment on the data collected so far, as well as the deadline when he will issue an opinion because, he explains, the procedure is ongoing.
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'This can happen to anyone and that's why I don't give up'
With a black hat, surrounded by bags and bottles of water, Andrej Obradović sits on a wooden chair on the plateau in front of the Serbian Parliament.
As we talk on Monday afternoon, passers-by, mostly older women, approach him to say hello, ask how he is and if he needs anything.
"It's important that you take magnesium," one of them tells him.
The young man gets up to thank her, but his wife does not allow him, saying: "Don't waste your strength, sit, sit."
He fell ill a few hours earlier, for which he received medical attention, but he refused to go to the Emergency Center.
He says that during the day he was visited by citizens who brought him water and roses.
"This happened to me today, and tomorrow it can happen to anyone, because soon there will be no more vulnerable groups to whom this can happen.
"Then it will be the turn of everyone who is silent about violence, and silence about violence is also violence," he says.
Several of his friends gathered around Obradović, as well as citizens who had just met him.
"We met for the first time yesterday to see what is happening and he has my full support, although of course I do not support that he endangers his health.
"But I certainly think that this is a good message for all those who were silent and did not have the courage," says Branislav Simić for the BBC in Serbian.
It is important for Obradović to say that "he has not encountered any condemnations so far".
"People need to stop being afraid of the public and condemnation, and that's why I appeal to television stations with national frequencies to report on what is happening," he says.
Procedure in progress
Representatives of the "Da se zna" organization, as well as Andrej's mother, said at the end of February that police officers insulted, hit and abused him and his roommate during a search of the apartment for alleged drug use.
Referring to the words of Obradović and his roommate, Bojan Lazić from the organization "Da se zna" then stated that the abuse escalated when members of the police noticed LGBT+ symbols in the apartment.
The young man was tied up, they beat both of them and insulted the young man, threatening him "you should be killed, you are sick", said Lazic earlier based on the testimony of two young people.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia told the BBC in Serbian at the time that the apartment was searched by order of the First Basic Court and that on that occasion substances suspected to be marijuana and AIDS were found.
"The internal control sector informed the competent prosecutor's office, on whose order the veracity of the allegations in the complaint is determined.
"If it is established that police officers have exceeded their powers, they will be sanctioned in accordance with the law," stated the Ministry of Interior.
Since the complaints were rejected before the first-instance body of the MUP, the organization "Da se zna" organized a protest in the center of Belgrade.
"As in other cases of violence perpetrated by the police, the strategy of state institutions is to ignore and postpone indefinitely in order to forget and make the crime obsolete.
"We are determined to keep this in the public eye and we will not give up until there is an epilogue," Lazić told the BBC in Serbian.
He states that the "Da se zna" organization provides legal and psychological support to Obradović, but that it cannot support the hunger strike.
"I'm asking him to stop because health comes first, but I understand his demands," he says.
Obradović says that he will not stop.
"My intention is to break down the 'blue wall of silence' in the Ministry of Interior and to do my best to ensure that something like this never happens again," he says.
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