Activist opposed to Rio Tinto lithium mine receives anonymous death threats, 22 August 2024

When Aleksandar Matković received the first message threatening his life, he thought it was a prank. The text, sent to his Telegram account just after midnight on 14 August read: “We will follow you until you disappear, scum.”

Matković is one of the campaigners who have been at the forefront of widespread protests against plans to develop a massive lithium mine in Serbia. He said: “At first I thought someone was joking but during the morning I got another message, saying ‘how is the struggle against Rio Tinto going?’ from another profile I didn’t know, and the app displayed the sender’s distance as just 500 [metres] away.”

Matković lives in Belgrade, but was in Split visiting a friend, which suggested to him that he was being followed. The reference to Rio Tinto, whose planned $2.4bn lithium mine in Serbia’s Jadar valley had sparked huge protests four days before, only heightened his sense of alarm...

At that point Matković reported the threats to the Belgrade police, who are now investigating, according to correspondence seen by the Guardian along with the menacing texts...

For its part, Rio Tinto condemned any threats of violence against Matković. A company statement said: “Rio Tinto strongly condemns any direct or implied threat of violence, online or elsewhere, against those participating in the debate about the Jadar project.”

The statement from Rio Tinto, a British-Australian multinational, said the company “also condemns in the strongest terms the intimidation and threats that our employees and their families in Serbia have faced”...