A group of around 30 people rallied on Monday in front of the EU rule-of-law mission, EULEX offices in the Kosovo capital, calling Ivanovic a political prisoner and demanding he be released until the verdict in his trial.

Ivanovic went on hunger strike on Friday after EULEX decided to extend his custody until October 6.

“We have only one request and we expect EULEX to react immediately before his health condition worsens and then someone has to take responsibility for that,” said Ksenija Bozovic, the deputy president of Ivanovic’s Freedom, Democracy, Justice party.

Bozovic also said she believed that Ivanovic’s trial would end in acquittal.

“In the end, he will show that he is innocent,” she said.

There was also another pro-Ivanovic protest on Monday morning in the northern part in Mitrovica in front of the Basic Court, where the politician is on trial.

Ivanovic is accused of war crimes by ordering the murder of ethnic Albanians in Mitrovica on April 14, 1999 during the NATO bombing, when he was allegedly the leader of a paramilitary police unit.

He is also accused, along with another person, of inciting the killing of ethnic Albanians during unrest that erupted after the war on February 3, 2000, when many Albanians were driven from their homes.

Four other defendants, Dragoljub Delibasic, Aleksandar Lazovic, and father and son Ilija and Nebojsa Vujacic, also face charges of murder or attempted murder.

All of them have pleaded not guilty.