On Saturday (March 6, 2021), we were extremely alarmed when K2.0 regional editor Nidžara Ahmetašević posted on her Facebook account “Uhapšena sam” (I’ve been arrested).  

Together with other journalists, activists, human rights defenders, and Nidžara’s friends and family, we scrambled to get reliable information about what had happened, where she was and if her legal protections were being upheld.

Over the following hours, we were able to piece together the central facts.

In the early afternoon, Nidžara was violently arrested by police in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina after filming an on-duty police officer who was distributing traffic fines. 

During the arrest, Nidžara repeatedly asked the two police officers to put their facemasks on properly, since they were wearing them underneath their noses. A video of the incident made by Nidžara shows the officers mocking her and calling her “budala” (fool) before violently arresting her and saying they would take her to Jagomir (a mental health hospital in Sarajevo).

Nidžara was placed in handcuffs, with no explanation why, her phone taken from her, and she was subsequently transported into police custody where she was detained — still in handcuffs — without being given food or water.

While all this was taking place, officers continued to insult her and repeatedly cursed her mother. She was denied access to a lawyer for more than an hour; even after she was eventually allowed to call a lawyer, she still received no explanation as to the official reason for her arrest.

After being locked in a detention unit, she was forced to strip naked and was told she would be subjected to a full body search.

Following a huge public outcry from activists, media and human rights supporters across the region, Nidžara was eventually released, around five hours later.

Both Nidžara’s arrest and the abusive and degrading treatment she was subjected to by authorities, whose job it is to protect citizens and uphold the rule of law, are utterly reprehensible. They should ring deafening alarm bells for anyone who claims to care about democratic values in Bosnia and Herzegovina or the wider region. 

To make a person who has been forcefully deprived of their liberty strip naked was an overt act of ritual humiliation and a gross abuse of power carried out with the sole intention of making her feel vulnerable. Accompanied by personal insults and curses against Nidžara’s family members, these actions were clearly intended to intimidate and coerce and were a grave violation of human rights. 

The spurious reasons offered for the arrest itself — which have varied according to different accounts given by officials — are further indicative of institutional malfeasance. 

If this were a stand alone incident it would be concerning enough. But what happened on Saturday must be viewed in the context of a persistent and targeted campaign of harassment and intimidation against Nidžara in recent years and an abject failure of authorities to even address her reported concerns.

Nidžara’s is a strong and much-needed voice for human rights, particularly the rights of refugees and migrants in Bosnia and throughout the region. She has actively campaigned for the humane treatment of some of the most vulnerable and marginalized people in society and is a tireless activist on the ground, attempting to ensure those with nothing have access to food, clothing, shelter and basic legal protections. 

Since her initial engagement with K2.0 four years ago, Nidžara has also been one of our key editors in making sure that their stories of injustice are told. Our work as a media is unquestionably enhanced by her determination, zeal, assertiveness and care to expose and highlight how the unjust systems and application of power oppress individuals and certain groups of citizens. 

As a result of her personal activism and her work as a journalist, she has regularly found herself the focus of attention for authorities who would prefer to act with total impunity — without the accountability that her words and actions demand.

Having been subjected to malicious harassment, and an online smear campaign, Nidžara has repeatedly complained to authorities. The online harassment she has reported includes personal messages sent to her on Facebook and anonymous messages sent by text to her mobile phone containing threats of physical assault and rape.

However, rather than taking action to investigate her complaints and protect her, Bosnian authorities have instead continued to pursue spurious legal action against her through the courts; Nidžara has already won multiple legal cases against her to date after police were found to have made up accounts or not presented valid evidence, but each case still takes its personal toll.  

Despite such efforts to silence her, Nidžara is outspoken and unapologetic in her approach and makes full use of her right to freedom of expression. For many, this is clearly uncomfortable and unsettling.

The derisive tone and language used by the arresting police officers toward Nidžara as she reminded them of their duty is also representative of the ways in which misogyny is entrenched in institutional behavior. 

As with almost everywhere, in the patriarchal system of power, violence against women is systematically disregarded and belittled. Such violence is therefore not just maintained by institutions, but also reproduced by them. The police officers’ violent behavior toward Nidžara shows a classic example of people in positions of authority using their power to delegitimize women by seeking to strip them of their agency and political being. 

It is absolutely fundamental to our democratic societies that Nidžara’s right to speak out without fear and her work to keep power accountable is vigorously defended.

Having witnessed such flagrant abuse of positions of authority with a self-prescribed assumption of absolute power, it is paramount that all actors and organizations working to defend freedom of speech, media and human rights, as well as those promoting democratic values, insist on accountability. Failure to demand concrete action and to persistently follow up to provide adequate protections, will result in an already fragile environment for journalists, activists and other human rights defenders deteriorating still further.

Feature image: Velija Hasanbegović (archive image).