Novak Djokovic's mother has claimed that her son was "subjected to torture" while fighting his deportation from Australia.
Last week, the Serbian tennis world number one made headlines when he was denied entry into the country after arriving in Melbourne with the hope of defending his title at the Australian Open.
The Australian Border Force revealed in a statement that the 34-year-old athlete was detained due to his unvaccinated status.
Eventually, the Australian Government overturned the decision to deny the tennis star entry into the country.
But now his mother Dijana Djokovic is claiming that her son was subjected to "torture" and "harassment" while he was detained.
Dijana said at a press conference held on Monday, January 10, per The Independent:
"Thank you for coming. We're here to celebrate our son Novak, a boy who in his family learned not to put up with lies and cheating. He always fought for justice. He’s done nothing wrong, he hasn’t broken any of their laws and he was subjected to torture, to harassment.
"He fought against that system and the government because he thought he had the right to be there and he went there to win the tournament."
She continued:
"This was extremely difficult and these six days we have tried to fight for him, to make sure the voice is heard around the world. There's been a spectrum emotions: sadness, fear, disappointment, there have been moments when he didn’t have his phone with him.
"There are moments we didn’t know if he was OK, if he’d eaten, if he was safe. Those are the moments I will not get over quickly, I think every mother in the world will understand me.
"We all fought to show justice has been done. Thank God there is still justice in this world. I think this is his biggest win in his career, bigger than any Grand Slams."
Djokovic hadn't spoken publicly about his vaccination status, however, he did confirm to border officials at the time of the deportation order that he was unvaccinated. He is believed to have previously been granted an exemption from Covid vaccination rules to play in the Australian Open.
Despite this, the Australian Border Force argued at the time that he had "failed to provide appropriate evidence" for his claim that he is exempt from Australia's double vaccination rule.
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