Concern over Ivanovic's deteriorated health

BELGRADE - The Serbian government office for Kosovo stated on Friday concern of the deteriorated health of Citizen Initiative SDP leader Oliver Ivanovic, who has been on a hunger strike in a prison in Pristina for four days.

"Ivanovic's condition is so poor that he was unable to make it through his lawyer's visit today, according to what we have been told," the statement says.

The office demands that Ivanovic be checked urgently by a doctor of his choosing.
"We express great concern over the fact that Ivanovic has been threatened with isolation and solitary confinement unless he ends the hunger strike, and also because of the fact that on Wednesday, when he was allowed to go outside for the first time in 40 days since being placed in detention, which was allowed because of the breathing problems he had, he was attakced by a group of Albanians," the statement says.

The office stresses that because of all that and the fact that Ivanovic is 61, it demands that the international community take all the necessary steps to so he oculd be released pending a trial, or at least transferred to a detention facility in Kosovska Mitrovica.
"We point out that the Serbian government has provided guarantees that Oliver Ivanovic will be available to the authorities at all times, so we do not see any reason for his further detention," the office said.

Photo Tanjug, Z. Zestic (archive photo)