The father of a Bosnian student whose unresolved death sparked months of protests in Republika Srpska has sued Bosnia's predominantly Serb entity, which he accuses of discrimination.
David Dragicevic, a 21-year-old technology student from Banja Luka, was found dead in a local river a week after going missing in March 2018.
Police said at the time that Dragicevic had been caught up in a fight at a cafe and that they found alcohol and drugs in his system.
The victim's family has accused police of involvement, saying their son was abducted, tortured, and murdered.
David's father, Davor Dragicevic, said on March 14 that he has sued Republika Srpska's Interior Ministry and the entity's judicial institutions for discriminating against him and the "Justice for David" group that he created.
The case was called a drowning and originally ruled a suicide.
David's family has accused authorities of putting pressure on them and their supporters.
In April 2021, the central Prosecutor's Office for Bosnia-Herzegovina took over the case from the Banja Luka Prosecutor's Office.
In March 2019, David's body was exhumed and his parents moved his remains from Banja Luka to the Austrian town of Wiener Neustadt, near Vienna.
Dragicevic led months of anti-government protests by demanding answers about his son's death. Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, has called the protests “politically motivated” and denied any wrongdoing by police.
"Since day one, [there was] continuous monitoring and discrimination [by authorities]," Dragicevic said on March 14, adding that the aim of his lawsuit is to obtain a legal document that will officially prove "that the institutions of Republika Srpska have committed acts of discrimination."
Davor Dragicevic's move against Republika Srpska was the second related to the case.
In December 2020, a Banja Luka court ruled in favor of the "Justice for David" group, who had also sued the Serb entity for discrimination. The court ordered that compensation must be paid to them.