A pre-trial judge at the Mitrovica Basic Court on Friday extended Kosovo Serb politician Ivanovic’s detention on remand until August 26, angering officials in Belgrade who insist that the case against him is politically motivated.

“The pre-trial judge found 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,” the EU-rule-of law mission, EULEX said in a statement.

Ivanovic was arrested in January on suspicion of involvement in war crimes against ethnic Albanians, and in murders committed after the 1990s conflict.

He was detained on suspicion of involvement in war crimes and in violence in 2000 in which ten Kosovo Albanians were killed and many more wounded and driven from their homes.

Ivanovic at the time was a leading "Bridge Watcher", one of the hardline Serbs who patrolled the main bridge in Mitrovica dividing the town into Serbian and Albanian sectors.

The head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, Marko Djuric, said that the extension of Ivanovic’s custody was a “bad signal for the rule of law in Kosovo”.

“It is worrying that Ivanovic was arrested in January under suspicion that he took part in crimes in Kosovo in 1999 and 2000, while the indictment against him has still not been issued, which proves our doubts that this is a political process,” Duric said.