moved to a nicer hotel?? maybe there's a nicer hotel in Belgrade he could go to????
Serbia’s foreign secretary has hauled in Australia’s ambassador to the Balkan country to demand tennis star Novak Djokovic be moved to a nicer hotel while he is in immigration detention after his visa was cancelled.
The intervention comes as Acting Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan revealed Tennis Australia did not inform her government about Morrison government letters stating a prior COVID infection – the basis for Djokovic’s exemption – would not be accepted as a genuine exemption.
The world no.1 tennis star is detained in the Park Hotel in Carlton, alongside a number of asylum seekers who have been detained there for years. He is awaiting a court hearing on Monday that will determine whether he will be able to stay in the country to defend his Australian Open title.
In a statement posted on the Serbian Foreign Affairs Ministry website, secretary Nemanja Starovic says he called the Australian Ambassador to Serbia Daniel Emery to attend the foreign office on January 6 to lodge a verbal protest due to the treatment of Djokovic in Australia.
“We expect that the ambassador personally takes action for [him] to be moved to accommodation befitting the best sportsman in the world, not a criminal or an illegal immigrant,” Mr Starovic said in the statement.
He said Djokovic was not a criminal, terrorist or illegal immigrant, but had been treated as such by Australian authorities, upsetting and angering his fans and the citizens of Serbia.
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link to www.brisbanetimes.com.au (secure)]
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