Director of company that didn't help boy: "Nothing to do with reality, mother read prepared text"

"The company's reputation has been very tarnished in the business world," the general manager of AD Podunavlje, Jovo Zivkov, tells Telegraf

A furore arose among the public after the news that a boy suffering from diabetes got taken ill in the middle of the street in Backa Palanka, because a worker from a nearby store refused to give him a chocolate bar. The boy's mother Marija M. also spoke about the incident, while the company, AD Podunavlje Backa Palanka, that employs the man who did not help the child, issued a statement claiming that their employees are facing a witch-hunt and insults because of false information placed in the media.

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General Director of AD Podunavlje Jovo Zivkov explains for Telegraf that the company reacted immediately after the incident and formed a fact-finding commission on Friday.

"The truth matters to us above of all, because everything that is being published has nothing to do with reality. Our legal service that represents us will assess, based on collected statements and evidence, whether there are further elements to forward the case to the police and other state bodies, because the reputation of Podunavlje has been tarnished in the business world," Zivkov stressed.

Speaking about potential consequences for the company' workers, if they are proven to have been to blame, Zivkov explains that nothing is known about it yet and that lawyers will deal with those things.

"I already have some statements and versions of the story that indicate that what has been published has nothing to do with the truth. But I wouldn’t talk about it any more at this point. Let it stand and let the lawyers, once we have forwarded all the material, decide."

When asked to comment on the testimony of the boy's mother Marija M., Zivkov replied - it has nothing to do with reality.

"I watched that story on television. You may have noticed how was reading from a (prepared) text," he says.

Zivkov also said that the company does not plan to comment any further after today's statement and that, if there are some important elements assessed by lawyers, they will be forwarded to the competent state authorities.

The boy's mother asks employees, "Can you look me in the eye?"

The boy's mother confirmed that her son almost collapsed because a worker from a nearby store did not want to give him a bar of chocolate.

"I didn't sleep all night, I couldn't wait to go and look them in the eye. I went and said that I was the mother of the child whose life the evening before cost 17 dinars, to ask them - can you look me in the eye now and could you have looked me in the eye if my child was dead? They just bowed their heads and said, 'no,'" said Marija.

She also stressed that she didn't want to target the company in which the shop assistant is employed as a "collective evil" but that she wants to raise awareness that over a million people in Serbia have diabetes.

"My boy has type 1 diabetes. Sometimes his finger has to be pricked 20 times a day," she said.

Earlier, reports said that the boy, a Romani, had a low sugar crisis in the street and asked employees in the store to give him a bar of chocolate that cost 17 dinars and that he couldn't pay for, which they refused.

The boy's friends, who was with him, went back to the store and tried to steal the cholocate to help his friend in trouble. But the shop assistant caught him, struck him, and chased him away.

(Telegraf.rs)