The tennis player acknowledged an error in his sworn statement when entering the country and that he attended an interview after receiving the positive result. They also investigate inconsistencies in their PCR tests.
Djokovic’s situation in Australia appears to be getting complicated, despite having won the first court battle and having secured his release. The tennis player acknowledged in the last hours that there were “human errors” in the documentation to enter the host country for the first Grand Slam of the year and also that he was in different events after receiving the positive result.
Australian authorities have another key point of the investigation under scrutiny: Djokovic assured that he received the positive test on the night of December 17, but in his affidavit before the court he warned that he was examined and diagnosed on December 16, as The Age reports. This inconsistency in the dates leads Internal Affairs to investigate the situation. “The maximum penalty for giving false evidence under the Crimes Act is a prison sentence of five years”, explained journalists Anthony Galloway, Paul Sakkal and Ben Grubb. In addition, there is a warning that they could prevent you from entering the country for up to three years, if your visa is revoked.
On the other hand, the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, warned that if Djokovic skipped the mandatory fourteen-day isolation for contracting covid, it would mean “a serious violation” of the country’s laws.
The tennis player admitted to having attended a face-to-face interview on December 18 in Belgrade despite knowing that he had contracted COVID because “it was a long-standing commitment” and not to “look bad with the journalist.”
This goes against the legislation against the covid that Serbia had at that time, which forced those infected to keep a fourteen-day quarantine. Djokovic underwent a PCR on December 16, but assured that he did not know the result until the 17th, despite the fact that the documents from the laboratory that carried out the test revealed that they reported the positive just a few hours after the PCR was done.
“If you are positive, you have to isolate yourself”Brnabic said in an interview with the BBC. “I don’t know when he got the results and when he saw them. That’s a bit of a gray area that only Novak can answer.”he added. The prime minister assured that, if it is shown that the tennis player breached the rules against covid, he will have to confront the authorities and medical bodies in charge of drafting these laws.
Djokovic is already free in Australia and was able to train these days in Melbourne Park, but he is awaiting the decision of the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, who can exercise his personal right to cancel the Serbian’s visa and request his deportation. again.
Brnabic said he hopes Djokovic can stay in Australia and play in the tournament, but added that he does not agree with the Serb’s decision not to be vaccinated. “What matters to me is that we support Novak, but at the same time, both for the country and for me, vaccination is something very important and the only way to end this pandemic”said politics.
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