One of the lawyers of the arrested Serbs Ljubomir Pantovic told TV Prva that 31 persons have been arrested in the action of ROSU, but that there is a possibility of new arrests, reported Kontakt plus radio, quoting Belgrade based TV Prva.

As Pantovic said, there are reports that two more people voluntarily reported to the Kosovo Police Inspectorate.

“Special prosecution claims that the police officers have committed at least 3 criminal acts each, participation in an organised criminal group, abuse of authority and receiving bribe. They claim that they have appropriate evidence for this, they refer to some protected witnesses, technical measures of surveillance during the investigation, eavesdropping, etc. However, based on what the Prosecutor has presented on Wednesday at the detention hearing, we are not convinced that the evidence exists,” Pantovic said.

According to him, it was obvious that there was the excessive use of force and pointed that it would be a long and complex investigation.

“It is possible that there was abuse of authority by police officers who carried out the arrest” Pantovic said.

When asked about the 11 people, admitted to hospital in North Mitrovica, and how did they receive their injuries, and about ''the clashes'' between residents and police, Pantovic replied that this was “an obvious excessive use of force by police”.

“It is possible that there was some barricade on the road, but this barricade was breached by police and there was no reason for police to go into houses and to beat whomever they could. Decision of the Basic Court in Kosovska Mitrovica to release all of the detained Serbs from Zubin Potok pending trial has confirmed that this is true,” Pantovic said.