Global Voices Online

Stressed by a recent horrific murder which happened in front of social workers in eastern Serbian city of Knjaževac, Russell and Jelena made a blog about their struggle with the Serbian legal system to protect Jelena's child from her former drug addict husband. Previously Russell Gordon spent 48 hours in detention after breaking a window of a court in Sopot as he was enraged because the judge did nothing to ensure his wife's safety during a court session.

Russell Gordon writes (SRP):

[…]

In the three years since their divorce, the heroin addict has paid no child support, continually endangered Ilija’s life through neglect during his visitation, and in the last year, repeatedly threatened death to our family. He has left Ilija in the “care” of others while procuring drugs, and driven drunk with him on his lap with no seat belt. We have tried to protect Ilija from possible harm by limiting the times when the ex-husband could see or take him, but the legal system has defied logic and defended the junkie, not the child. When we inquire as to what logic permits this, we are always told the same: “This is Serbia.”

Registered addict Vladimir Mladenovic from Nis has twice come to our home with football hooligans while drunk, banging on the doors and windows, threatening to beat us to death in front of little Ilija. Twice they have hurled abuse and threats at us while trespassing on our own property. We followed the law and remained in our house, and called police. The legal system did nothing.

Once, while driving away Vladimir and Ilija during their court appointed bi-monthly visits, one of the hooligans tried to hit me with his car. The legal system again did nothing.

Rather than have the sanctity of our child, our home and our welfare defended by the State, we have been repeatedly warned by the Serbian courts, police and social workers that regardless of the risk the ex-husband’s behavior poses to Ilija’s health and life (and ours), if we impede his court-appointed visitation rights for any reason it will be Jelena who sees the inside of a Serbian prison.

Additionally, the ex-husband has filed numerous frivolous lawsuits against us, which the Serbian State has duly prosecuted. We are being sued for using “not nice words” to him and the hooligans (including calling them hooligans) when they came trespassing on our property to make death threats. The lawsuits have contained considerable creative license, all heard duly by the courts.

Our concerns though have been met with a considerably different measure. While giving testimony against Vladimir for his threatening behavior, one judge sat Jelena within one meter of him with no security. Ignoring and waving off my concerns imperiously, the judge waved me out of her courtroom. Enraged, I broke a small window while trying to exit the building, and was imprisoned for two days, and physically abused by guards. (My repeated efforts to contact acquaintances in the Serbian Ministries of Justice, Interior and Defense were met with complete silence, and we were advised that although the prison warden admitted that guard brutality was “routine” we didn’t stand a chance in Serbian courts suing the government.)

Yesterday the ex-husband showed up in court to testify against us for our alleged insults to his dignity – visibly wasted on heroin. His half-shut eyes and slurred, mumbled speech testified to our concerns about his ability and competence to care for Ilija when he takes him two weekends per month. The judge refused to hear Jelena’s concerns, and refused to order drug tests. His at-times incoherent ramblings were duly recorded, and our lawyer counseled silence.

At the heart of the matter is a battle not over Ilija’s safety, or a father’s love supposed for his son, but between a family who failed, and one who is succeeding.

When I formed a family with Jelena and Ilija, he was a boy without anyone fulfilling the role of father. I accepted him, love him and raise him as my own and we have great love and family harmony. The rage this obviously caused to Vladmir and his parents drove them to use and abuse the legal system, and so many lawsuits and court-appointed interviews means that we dedicate three days out of each week to courts, lawyers, and social workers – none who has done a thing to protect Ilija, or us.

If this case were unique in Serbia, one could shrug it off as bad luck. But in our inquiries with friends, colleagues, and law firms, it turns out this is all standard operating procedure. The reason we are told with a shrug is always the same: This is Serbia.

Early this week in another part of Serbia, an ex-husband killed his wife right in front of the social workers who ordered visitation rights. Is this the European Serbia of the future?

Such an anarchic and anti-conformist society seems hardly fit for the regimentation, and bureaucracy-in-the-triplicate regulation that EU membership necessitates. Will they buckle up through Schengen checkpoints, only to die on the open road in visa-free bliss? And how many EU citizens will they take with them to the netherworld?

It begs the sardonic question: who pays Ilija’s funeral expenses if he dies in a car crash? And is there a specific procedure for applying for an official statement of regret over our bereavement, or do we just follow SOP and say ‘this is Serbia’?