ZVECAN – Reacting to yet another extension of custody for leader of the Citizens’ Initiative “Freedom, Democracy, Justice” (GI SDP) Oliver Ivanovic, his lawyer Nebojisa Vlajic said Wednesday that the head of EULEX was interfering in the work of judicial authorities in Kosovo, as he had been announcing that extension for a few days before the decision had been made.
EULEX spokeswoman Dragana Nikolic-Solomon told Tanjug yesterday that Ivanovic’s custody had been extended by another two more months, to October 26.
“We received the decision on the extension of detention yesterday at noon, and the head of EULEX knew about it, and if that is so, it means that he is interfering with the judiciary and that he is the one who ordered it, and not the judge,” Vlajic said for TV Most, based in the northern Kosovo town of Zvecan.
Referring to the disregard for the guarantees offered by the government of the Republic of Serbia that Ivanovic and others will be available to judicial authorities at all times in exchange for their release pending trial, Vlajic said that it had happened for the first time in the case of Oliver Ivanovic and Dragoljub Delibasic.
“Provision of state guarantees that someone will be available (to judicial authorities) is an institute of international law,” stressed Vlajic.
He pointed out that guarantees coming from the government of the Republic of Serbia are accepted at the Hague tribunal and stressed that Serbia guaranteed that Oliver Ivanovic, who held its citizenship, would be available to the court at all times.
“It is unclear why the court and the public prosecutor are ignoring the guarantees when (Serbia’s) guarantees have been recognized and respected, and never betrayed, in The Hague, in far more important and more difficult cases,” Vlajic said.
Ivanovic is charged with ordering the murder of four ethnic Albanians that took place in Kosovska Mitrovica on April 14, 1999 (during the armed conflict in Kosovo and the NATO bombing of Serbia).
The GI SDP leader is also charged with inciting the killing of 10 ethnic Albanians in unrest on February 3, 2000, which broke out after a bomb was thrown into a club in North Mitrovica and had several Serbs wounded.
Former chief of police in Kosovska Mitrovica and retired Serbian Interior Ministry colonel Dragoljub Delibasic is charged with inciting together with Ivanovic co-perpetration of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder on February 3, 2000.
