The trial to Oliver Ivanovic, a Serbian politician and the president of the civic initiative “Serbia, Democracy, Justice” from Kosovska Mitrovica, charged with instigating war crimes in 1999 and 2000, should start before the EULEX court on 18 December. On that occasion a few more depositions will be read, and the witness testimonies will commence in late January, Ivanovic’s closes associate and vice president of his political party Ksenija Bozovic told our radio.

Ivanovic is eagerly awaiting the beginning of the trial, being ready and confident that he will prove his innocence. “They could not break him either as a man or as a politician, although his personal life has been shaken. Somebody has tried to eliminate him, but they only managed to temporarily remove him, while more than 17 thousand signatures on the petition for his parole speaks about the trust he enjoys among the people,” Ksenija Bozovic explains. She reminds of the fact that for almost 15 years Ivanovic has been involved with the political and social life, moving among and communicating with both the Serbs and Albanians, so it is surprising that he was arrested at the moment when he was the main candidate for the mayor of Mitrovica.

According to Bozovic, Ivanovic hopes that by the end of December he may be released to prepare his defense, because that is when the decision on extending the custody will expire, and none of the reasons for which it had been passed are still valid. “All of the witnesses have been heard, and there are the guarantees of the Serbian Government that Ivanovic will not leave Kosovo, that he will be regularly reporting to the judiciary and police bodies. The international representatives are aware that the first door they knocked on upon coming to Kosovo was the door of Oliver Ivanovic. That cooperation has never been interrupted, even after is arrest, so we expect that they will take that all into consideration and at least allow him the conditional freedom,” Bozovic added.

She believes it is very important that President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic had mentioned the issue of Ivanovic’s arrest at the sessions of the UN Security Council, and that EULEX has kept moving on while the situation in the field has not changed.

Oliver Ivanovic was arrested on 27 January this year on the suspicion of having taken part in the alleged war crimes in 1999, and the post-war incidents in 2000. The indictment against him and another four Serbs was raised on August 13 thus year.