Novak Djokovic has revealed he was “poisoned” by the food he ate while being held in a Melbourne detention centre amid his 2022 visa saga.
In an interview with GQ published on Thursday, Djokovic said upon returning to Serbia after being deported, he began to feel “very sick”.
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“I had some health issues. And I realised that in that hotel in Melbourne, I was fed with some food that poisoned me,” Djokovic said.
“I had some discoveries when I came back to Serbia. I never told this to anybody publicly, but discoveries that I had a really high level of heavy metal.
“I had the lead, very high level of lead and mercury.”
GQ reached out to the Department of Home Affairs for a comment, which said, “For privacy reasons, the Department cannot comment on individual cases.”
Djokovic was housed in a hotel in Carlton being used as an immigration detention centre in January 2022.
He stayed at the facility for five days after the federal government cancelled his visa, having not met Australia’s vaccination requirements at the height of the pandemic.
However, in the interview, Djokovic said the real reason he was deported was because he was a “public threat”.
“That’s the actual reason why I was deported from Australia,” he said.
“That’s what the three federal judges said in the end. Their sentence is that they are not in a position to question the discretionary right of the [immigration] minister. It was so political.
“It had nothing really to do with vaccine or COVID or anything else. The politicians could not stand me being there. For them, I think, it was less damage to deport me than to keep me there.”
Djokovic has arrived in Australia this week to begin his campaign for a record-extending 25th major title at the Australian Open.