Dojčinović was detained at Abu Dhabi International Airport early Wednesday morning by the United Arab Emirates Government before being put on a return flight to Serbia.
Award-winning Serbian journalist, Stevan Dojčinović, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Crime and Corruption Reporting Network KRIK, has been barred from speaking at the UN Convention against Corruption.
Dojčinović was detained at Abu Dhabi International Airport early Wednesday morning by the United Arab Emirates Government before being put on a return flight to Serbia.
“Dojčinović being prevented from speaking at the CoSP undermines the credibility of the conference, which is supposed to advance the global anti-corruption agenda and the implementation of the convention,” said David Banisar, Chair of the UNCAC Coalition.
Dojčinović was scheduled to speak on the panel “New Approaches in Addressing Cross-Border Corruption, Money Laundering and Organised Crime”, hosted by Transparency International, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit and Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime.
He had an official invitation letter from UONDC and was registered to attend the conference as a member of the UNCAC Coalition’s delegation.
Gillian Dell, Head of Conventions at Transparency International, said five organisations were not allowed to attend due to objections from unknown states.
Numerous civil society activists from Arab countries were not provided with visas in time to attend the conference, and a statement from civil society organisations from Arab countries on the restricted civic space in the region was not accepted by the conference due to countries being referenced.