International Prosecutor at EULEX, Pascal Persoons, told Radio Kontakt plus earlier on Wednesday that the two lawyers were arrested on suspicion of influencing and even threatening witnesses in an ongoing case.
Lawyers Dejan A. Vasic and Faruk Korenica were arrested at around 2.00 a.m. on Tuesday in an EULEX police operation. Serbs in northern Kosovo staged a protest on Tuesday against their arrest.
The same day, representatives of the local self-government in northern Kosovo demanded that EULEX stop ignoring the institutions in the north, the Kosovo Police Regional Command in particular.
They demanded that the lawyers be released immediately and that all the arrested Serbs be granted pre-trial release.
Among others, Vasic are Korenica are defending the four Serbs who were arrested in the past few months in Kosovo-Metohija. One of the Serbs defended by Vasic is Zarko Veselinovic, who has been charged with attempted murder of two members of Kosovo’s ROSU special police units, and his trial is currently underway.
Aleksandar Vulin, Serbian minister without a portfolio in charge of Kosovo-Metohija, said on Tuesday that EULEX police violated the law during the arrests of two lawyers, and requested that they be urgently released pending trial.
Vulin said that the behavior of the EULEX police is incomprehensible and that the arrests of the lawyers are a continuation of the pressure on Serbs in Mitrovica North.
