Defenders of Oliver Ivanovic will respond today to the prosecutor's appeal, who insists that the leader of CI SDP should remain in jail until the final verdict, instead of currently being in house arrest. “Regardless of everything we have greater confidence in the international EULEX judges,” said Ljubomir Pantović, Ivanovic's attorney.

When do you expect a written verdict of the Trial Chamber according to which Ivanovic was sentenced to nine-years in prison? 

The motive of the verdict, finding leader of CI SDP Oliver Ivanovic guilty, is to prevent him from leading the Serbs in the province, said the President of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolic. He added that the verdict is an attempt to politically ‘behead’ Serbs and to justify their removal from the political scene in Kosovo.

The verdict handed down on Thursday to Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic is not final yet and the struggle will continue, says Aleksandar Vucic.

Speaking late on Thursday, the Prime Minister added that the ruling "looks more like political force than law and justice."

The verdict for Oliver Ivanovic is not final. Lawyers will file an appeal, but Marko Djuric Director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo believes that lawyers cannot help prevent a politically motivated process. "First, it should be said that there is something rotten in the Kosovo judiciary.

After EULEX's verdict on Oliver Ivanovic's case, Serbian citizens have been called to protest against the shameful decision of the court. The rally will be held in Belgrade on Saturday at 12:44 p.m. at Nikola Pasic Square.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Rasim Ljajic said he was shocked by the verdict in the case against the leader of the Civil Initiative SDP Oliver Ivanovic, and said that this could have an impact on "overall atmosphere that is created" in Kosovo.

Director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo Marko Djuric said today that Serbia is appalled by the verdict of Oliver Ivanovic's case and that in such an atmosphere, continuing the dialogue with Pristina should be seriously considered. "My personal opinion is that Pristina and the international community needs to provide Serbia with additional assurance that the dialogue makes sense. For me personally it seems that in this atmosphere, there is not a lot to talk about and it all comes down to the humiliation of Serbia," Djuric told reporters.

Kosovo Serb leader Ivanovic’s martial arts skills brought him to politics, and he was once seen as a key figure in Kosovo-Serbia dialogue - but he now faces jail for war crimes against Albanians.

“I am completely innocent,” Oliver Ivanovic, the head of the Freedom, Democracy, Justice political party in the Serb-majority north of the divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica, told a court in August 2014.

Leader of the Civic Initiative SDP Oliver Ivanovic was sentenced to nine years in prison at the proceeding against him and four other Serbs. The trial was briefly interrupted at about 10.20 a.m. due to technical problems with microphones. As the technical issue failed to be resolved, the trial continued without sound half an hour later.

The verdict of the case against Oliver Ivanovic, Dragoljub Delibasic and three other Serbs, should be announced from 10 a.m. onward at the Municipal Court in Mitrovica North. The presence of the Kosovo Police has been visibly increased today. Both gates leading to the Court building have been closed and are being guarded by Kosovo police who have been deployed in large numbers around the Court.