Serbian Mayor’s Assistant Sacked for Criticising President

Emir Asceric told BIRN on Tuesday that he has been dismissed from his post as assistant to the mayor of the southern, mainly Bosniak-populated town of Novi Pazar because he claimed that President Aleksandar Vucic used the delivery of medical supplies and equipment for political purposes.

"I have been denied free speech. I wrote an update on Facebook in which I pointed out a political campaign," Asceric said.

However, Novi Pazar's mayor Nihat Bisevac accused Asceric of unacceptably politicising the issue amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

"I consider it unacceptable that at this moment anyone politicises any effort at all that is made to overcome the current situation, and that is why this morning I made the decision to discharge Emir Asceric, former assistant to the mayor, from his duties in accordance with the statute of the city of Novi Pazar," Bisevac said in a press release on Tuesday.

Vucic visited Novi Pazar on Monday with the shipment of medical supplies.

"I came to tell the people in Novi Pazar that we are all in a difficult fight together. We have brought a lot of help to Novi Pazar as a permanent gift, and not only during the fight against the coronavirus epidemic, because we want people in this city to know that we are taking care of their health," Vucic told media during the visit.

Asceric wrote on Facebook afterwards that he felt "absolutely no need to be grateful for today's 'donation' to the hospital in Novi Pazar".

"Shouldn't hospitals have been adequately equipped before?" he asked.

He described Vucic's appearance as part of a "brutal political campaign".

Novi Pazar is the biggest city in the Sandzak region, which straddles south-west Serbia and Montenegro and has a majority Bosniak...