Serbian prosecutors in Serbia say there is no evidence that top tennis player Novak Djokovic submitted fake Covid certificates to Australian authorities.
A BBC report questioned the validity of the tests, focusing on exclusions in serial numbers. The tests were given to the Australian authorities so that the tennis player could play in the Australian Open. His visa application was eventually rejected, he was deported and could not play in the tournament.
The Belgrade Prosecutor’s Office however, he said the Serbian Ministry of Health confirmed that the documents were authentic. The office said it had inspected the “electronic database” containing details of the tests and results, and showed that Djokovic’s initial positive test and subsequent negative test were both more valid. The documents submitted by his lawyers to the Australian federal court included two Covid test certificates (PCR), one with a positive result on December 16 and one with a negative result on December 22.
A German research team called Zerforschung first identified the discrepancy, meaning that the previous test had a later serial number. They wrote a poignant blog entitled “Novak Djokovic’s PCR tests that travel through time” and collaborated with the German news website Der Spiegel on the subject.
The serial numbers in the documents were out of order with others collected from around the same time, the BBC reported. But the Serbian prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday:
“It was found that Novak Djokovic was tested many times and the … test results from December 16th and December 22nd were valid.” The prosecutor’s statement comes on the eve of the tennis player’s meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
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