Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic, held on suspicion of war crimes and murder during and after the 1990s conflict, appealed against a decision to extend his custody for two months.
Marija Ristic, Edona Peci
BIRN
Belgrade, Pristina
Ivanovic’s lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic said that he filed an appeal to the Basic Court in Mitrovica on Monday after it ruled to extend the Serb politician’s detention on remand until June 27.
“The appeal was filed early this morning, but we don’t know when the judges will decide on our appeal,” Vlajic told BIRN.
The court in Mitrovica ruled on Friday that “the risk of flight and the risk that the defendant might influence witnesses if released continued to exist and that there are no less severe measures that could be imposed at this time”.
Ivanovic’s political party, Serbia, Democracy, Justice, said that the decision, accusing the EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, and the Pristina authorities of being biased against Serbs.
“By extending custody for [party] leader Oliver Ivanovic for two months, EULEX and its representatives in the area of the rule of law have confirmed one more time that there is no justice or respect of basic human rights when Serbs are involved,” the party said in a statement.
The party also complained that the court ruled there was a risk that Ivanovic might flee despite the fact that the Serbian government has provided guarantees that he will not.
It added that the Pristina authorities had also turned a blind eye to a petition for Ivanovic’s release backed by the Belgrade government, which has so far been signed by some 10,000 Kosovo Serbs, it claimed.
Ivanovic was detained in January “as an alleged suspect in an ongoing war crimes investigation”, according to the EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, and is also suspected of involvement in violence in 2000 in which ten Kosovo Albanians were killed and many more wounded and driven from their homes.
At the time, he was a leading “Bridge Watcher”, one of the hard-line Serbs who patrolled the main bridge in Mitrovica dividing the town into Serbian and Albanian sectors.
His arrest has caused discontent among Serbs in the town, who have taken to the streets in protest.
