Human Rights Action (HRA) strongly protests the fact that our Executive Director, Tea Gorjanc Prelević, was detained again today at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, where she was verbally informed that the Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) was behind the measure.

Following her initial detention on 27 July 2026, she formally requested, in accordance with the law, that the BIA and the Police Directorate of the Republic of Serbia provide information on the reasons why she had been singled out, separated from her minor children and detained at the border.

To date, she has received no response. Instead of acting transparently and in accordance with the law, the state authorities subjected her to yet another detention. The repetition of such treatment, without any written explanation or access to an effective legal remedy, constitutes a form of administrative harassment of a human rights defender.

We consider this measure to be arbitrary, politically motivated and legally opaque, and therefore incompatible with the Republic of Serbia’s human rights and rule-of-law obligations. Such treatment sends a clear message of intimidation to human rights defenders, journalists and all critical voices.

We call on the BIA and the competent authorities of the Republic of Serbia to publicly disclose, without delay, the legal basis and specific reasons for their treatment of Tea Gorjanc Prelević, and to ensure that any measure restricting freedom of movement is based on law, clearly reasoned and subject to effective legal review.

How long will the state authorities of the Republic of Serbia be allowed to subject human rights defenders to such arbitrary and repeated administrative harassment—or is this intended to become a permanent “measure”?