The lawyer of the three activists arrested at the protest in Belgrade against lithium mining filed an appeal against the verdict by which they were sentenced to prison terms.
Their lawyer Marko Pantić wrote on the X social network that he has submitted an appeal to the Criminal Court in Belgrade against the verdict by which Ivan Bjelic, Nikola Ristic and Jevđenije Julijan Dimitrijević were sentenced to 40 and 30 days in prison, respectively.
"We expect that the verdict will be annulled, and that if the second-instance court considers that the actions of the defendants have acquired some features of a misdemeanor - the case will be returned to the first-instance court for re-decision, with an order to conduct all evidentiary actions in the regular procedure," announced lawyer Pantić.
In the night between August 10 and 11, the police detained three activists at the Prokop railway station in Belgrade, which was blocked by a section of demonstrators after the protest on Saturday.
The court charges them with "violation of public order and peace by indecent, insolent and reckless behavior".
Lawyer Marko Pantić announced that the verdict states that Bjelic "held a sandwich near a journalist" of a daily tabloid, "pushed the sandwich into her mouth and smeared its contents", which is why he was sentenced to ten days more in prison than the other two arrested.
At that time, the Novi Beograd railway station was blocked. The request from both blockades was to adopt a law banning the exploration and mining of boron and lithium in Serbia.
On Sunday morning, the police kicked them out of the train stations and broke the blockades.
A number of citizens gathered yesterday in front of the Belgrade Police Department demanding the release of the detained activists.
Zlatko Kokanović, from the environmental organization Ne damo Jadar, previously stated that the protest blockades will last until the state adopts a ban on lithium mining and announced that blockades will be organized at several other key points throughout Serbia.
The government of the Serbian Progressive Party of Aleksandar Vučić, the current president of Serbia, has repeatedly announced that the lithium mine of the British-Australian company Rio Tinto in Jadr near Loznica in the west of the country should start operating in 2028.
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