A physical altercation occurred yesterday in a restaurant in Pristina between the leader of the Independent Liberal Party, Slobodan Petrovic and a member of Serbian List (SL), Milan Kostic. The SLS and SL made contradictory allegations of who attacked whom, but also of who gave a statement and who was detained by the Kosovo Police.

Petrovic, who was holding a press conference in the Kosovo Assembly building when Serbian List claimed that he was detained, stated that he was attacked because of the rhetoric which drew a target on him, following his guest appearance on RTK in the morning, where he talked about the work of former Minister of Agriculture Nenad Rikalo, whose former advisor was Kostic.

„I dropped my phone during that commotion and with the same phone… I took it from him later. I wanted to defend myself with that phone, since he charged at me with a bottle and cursed and threatened me, and I immediately called the police,“ Petrovic described the incident without specifying what he did with the phone.

When asked to comment on the allegations of Serbian List that he hit Kostic with the phone, Petrovic asked: „and they have never lied before?“

On the other hand, Serbian List claimed that Petrovic and his buddies “after entering the government of Ramush Haradinaj and receiving the post of a minister, got into their heads that they could physically attack and insult their compatriots only because they are their political opponents.“

Petrovic did not mention the presence of his party colleague during the incident, while Serbian List claimed that he was present on the scene. The SL, however, did not mention the presence of another Serbian List official and MP Slavko Simic who Petrovic claimed was present during and after the incident.

The Kosovo Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj condemned the incident.

„I strongly condemn the verbal and physical attack on the deputy of the Assembly of Kosovo Slobodan Petrovic on behalf of the Government of Kosovo. Any attack that calls into question the freedom of thought and political conviction of anybody is unacceptable,“ Haradinaj wrote on Facebook.

In the meantime, Serbian List published a video that appears to be from a security camera in Pristina. The video shows visible physical contact between three men, which closely resembles a confrontation.

The footage was interrupted before, as Serbian List claimed, „following the incident, Slobodan Petrovic sat down and ordered a drink to the astonishment of all present there.“

See at: https://bit.ly/2OlaVTW