Grand Slam 21 and catch 22

A school lesson on the rule of law was held by Australian federal judge Anthony Kelly, canceling the incomprehensible and unreasonable decision of the state authorities to deny entry visa to Novak Djokovic, who arrived there to win his tenth Australian Open, twenty-first Grand Slam in total, and officially register as the Greatest All Time.

In a serious rule of law, there are no parliamentary elections for the court and the law, as there are for the Australian executive, which made its decision to refuse a visa to Djokovic by raising the anger of voters before the upcoming general federal election: after a two-year calvary with the strictest epidemiological measures in the world, exhausted Australians were missing only some spoiled and unvaccinated global anti-vaxxer icon. Instead of public opinion, elections, campaigns and popularity polls, there is only law and paragraphs for court and law.

And Novak Djokovic - whether you and Judge Kelly like him or not - did everything the Australian state asked him to do, without violating a single law, regulation or epidemiological measure. After it was clearly and unequivocally explained to him that the conditions for a medical exemption from the obligation to vaccinate in Australia include those who have recovered from covid-19, Novak attached to the visa application a duly certified certificate from the Institute for Public Health of Serbia "Dr. Milan Jovanović Batut", according to which four weeks ago, on December 16, 2021, he tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the same Institute confirmed that not even a week later, on December 22, he was negative and healthy in a PCR test, ready for Australia.

And period. Judge Kelly enough.

From this side of the globe they were impressed by the integrity of the honorable judge and the Australian rule of law. "I would like to thank the legal system of Australia and Judge Kelly, who handled the case quite neutrally," Novak's brother Đorđe pointed out at the press conference, and father Srđan also showed his admiration, adding that "the judge was fantastic, respected the facts and brought the only decision that could have been made." Mr. Anthony Kelly thus became a Serbian national hero overnight - literally overnight, because Novak's trial lasted from midnight to morning Serbian time.

Honor is honor, and power is power, a temper is a temper, and a court is a court, and everything is according to the law: there are paragraphs, so grab it, it's the same for the devil and Djokovic. How lucky we are that our judges are like that, magnificently independent both of the executive power and of public opinion, so that they grab by paragraphs, everything and only according to the law.

Where is the best of luck? If there is no good luck in Serbia, there is one in this text, so let's imagine for the sake of good luck that Serbia is a legal state like Australia, and that the fantastic judge Anthony Kelly, instead of at the Federal Court in Melbourne, works at the First Basic Court in Belgrade. So that Đoković's confirmation of a positive test for the coronavirus from December 16 did not arrive on his desk with the request for the issuance of an Australian entry visa, but with the police criminal report and the indictment of the public prosecution against Mr. Novak Đoković a) under Article 248 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia on criminal offense against people's health. Or b) under Article 355 of the Criminal Code on the offense against legal traffic, regardless.

"The judge was fantastic, he respected the facts"? Here are some facts to respect.

The Institute for Public Health issued a confirmation of a positive PCR test to Djokovic on Thursday, December 16 at 20:19 p.m., and the Serbian tennis player the next day, Friday - knowing, therefore, that he was infected - at his tennis center in Dorćol met dozens of boys and girls, participants of the children's Masters tournament held there, hanging out and taking photos with the children, and handing out cups and awards. And then on Saturday he did a photo-session with the journalists of the French L'Equipe, who came to Belgrade to award him the award for the best athlete of the past year.

Either, therefore, Novak Djokovic, knowing that he is positive for the coronavirus - instead of being at home in self-isolation, like tens of thousands of his less famous compatriots - participated in several social events, knowingly endangering the health and lives of other participants and their family members, or is the confirmation of the Belgrade Public Health Institute simply falsified for the purposes of Djokovic's application for an Australian visa.

There is simply no third. I was looking all day yesterday and couldn't find her.

Don't be lazy, I then reached for the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia and grabbed it: paragraph 248 clearly and unequivocally states that "anyone who, during an epidemic of any dangerous infectious disease, does not comply with the regulations, decisions or orders that determine measures for its suppression or prevention will , shall be punished by a fine or imprisonment of up to three years", while paragraph 355 clearly and unequivocally states that "whoever makes a false or alters a true document with the intention of using such a document as a true one, or who uses a false or altered document as a true or is acquired for the purpose of use, shall be punished by imprisonment for up to three years".

The only remaining third possibility could, for example, have been that Novak Djokovic received the confirmation of a positive test from the Institute of Public Health two or three days late, but let's not kid ourselves, because referee Anthony Kelly is known to be very sensitive to kidding of the court: even if we were to believe in the fantastic possibility that no one told the Serbian god Novak Djokovic that he was infected with the coronavirus for two whole days, someone from Djokovic's legal team would probably say so publicly to this day. Especially after the whole world has been talking about Djokovic's catch-22 for days - was he intentionally spreading the infection or falsified a public document?

Finally, Djokovic's brother or father would explain it, who had a great opportunity to do so at the same press conference where they admired the honor and honesty of Judge Kelly to the point of imbecility. And who, when asked by a journalist about Novak's behavior after December 16, abruptly got up from the table and interrupted the conference, so instead of answering, they hugged and sang - "One country, one team, I'm proud of all of them, I come from Serbia, I'm never leaving".

How can you come from somewhere and never leave? That's what I'm talking about. Catch 22. Serbia.

Either Novak Djokovic knowingly endangered the health and lives of others, or he obtained a forged certificate of a positive test result. In both cases, as we have seen, the punishment is the same, so Djokovic does not spend three years in prison. Or at least, you have understood that by now, they would not have perished if Serbia was a legal state like Australia, and if the honorable and honest Mr. Anthony Kelly, good luck, is a judge of the First Basic Court in Belgrade. Which - let's say that - is still better than if Belgrade's Anthony Kelly is a judge of some kind of federal court in Australia, where you can get a life sentence for intentionally spreading the coronavirus.

So while we're already playing with imagining good fortune, let's also try to imagine the fantastic possibility that Serbia is a legal state like Australia, so that it judges its biggest star of all time regardless of her status and hysterical public opinion. Because a temper is a temper, and a court is a court, and everything is according to the law: there are paragraphs, so grab it, let it be the same to the devil and Djokovic, and to all those less famous citizens of Serbia who were convicted by the Serbian courts for exactly the same thing, and who for some reason ended up in a separate department of the Penitentiary in Vršac in Pancevo instead of in Australia.

If you need help in imagining, I will remind you, for example, of the case of thirty-eight-year-old SZ from Nis, the first Serb convicted for violating the mandatory self-isolation measure, who - all according to the instructions of the Ministry of Justice from March 19 last year - was sentenced by the Basic Court in Dimitrovgrad to those maximum three years in prison. Or, if it's easier for you to imagine, the case of the guy who was sentenced to three years and ten months by the Appellate Court in Belgrade for falsifying PCR tests four weeks ago - exactly on those days when Djokovic received a confirmation of a positive PCR test.

If you still don't like such an idea, don't worry, it's not up to your imagination, but to Serbia.

The land from which one may come, but therefore never leaves.

(N1)