The Serb former mayor of the Zubin Potok municipality, Slavisa Ristic, was questioned by EU rule-of-law mission prosecutors over the murder of a Kosovo police officer in 2011.

Ristic was questioned by EU rule-of-law mission, EULEX prosecutors at the basic court in Mitrovica on Monday over suspected involvement in an attack in July 2011 in Zubin Potok, in which a member of Kosovo’s police special unit was killed.

“Ristic appeared voluntarily before the prosecutors,” EULEX spokesperson Dragana Nikolic-Solomon told BIRN.

A witness told the trial of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s ‘Drenica Group’ cell, accused of assaulting prisoners during the 1998-99 war, that her husband was seriously beaten at a KLA jail. The protected prosecution witness, codenamed Witness K, told the court in Mitrovica on Monday that her husband suffered severe beatings at the KLA detention centre in Likovc/Likovac in 1998. She said her husband was taken away by two men in camouflage uniforms and when he returned the next month, he was badly injured with broken ribs, blood on his clothes, sore eyes and swelling all over his body.

The authorities in Pristina said that ex-guerrillas verified as having fought for the Kosovo Liberation Army against Serbian forces will get veterans’ pensions from January. The government commission tasked with verifying who fought for the Kosovo Liberation Army during the 1998-99 conflict has announced that veterans will start to receive benefits from January 2015.

17 Sep 14

If Victor Ponta wins the presidential poll in Romania, Kosovo will be waiting to see if he acts on his pledge to rethink Romania’s opposition to Kosovo’s independence.
Nektar Zogjani
BIRN
Pristina

Victor Ponta said he would rethink Romania’s opposition to Kosovo’s independence | Photo by: Wikimedia Commons / anti.usl

Refusal to recognise Kosovo’s independence by five EU member states is often singled out as one of the main obstacles slowing Kosovo’s European and Atlantic integration process.

6 Aug 14
Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic pleaded not guilty to committing war crimes during the Kosovo conflict and inciting the murder of Albanians during clashes that erupted afterwards.

Gordana Andric
BIRN
Belgrade

"I'm absolutely not guilty," Ivanovic told the first hearing in the war crimes case against him in the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica on Monday.

22 Aug 14

An extraordinary general election may be on the cards after the Constitutional Court annulled the election of an opposition speaker.

Pristina

21 Aug 14
At a Constitutional Court hearing on Thursday, Kosovo's two main political blocs argued about which of them has the right to nominate the speaker of parliament.

Nektar Zogjani
BIRN
Pristina

The court hearing should pave the way for a ruling designed to end a political stalemate in Kosovo over the election of a speaker - and the formation of a new government.

The Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, is contesting the election of an opposition politician, Isa Mustafa, as speaker.

21 Aug 14
Investigators have failed to find more corpses of Kosovo Albanian victims during a renewed search at a quarry in southern Serbia where 45 bodies have already been exhumed.

Nektar Zogjani
BIRN
Pristina

The Kosovo government’s missing persons commission told BIRN that the search launched three weeks ago at the Rudnica quarry near the southern Serbian town of had failed to uncover any further human remains.

20 Aug 14

As Kosovo’s post-election deadlock continues, the constitutional court this week will hear more arguments over which political bloc has the right to name the speaker.

Pristina

Kosovo’s Constitutional Court is due to hold a hearing session on Thursday when the two major political blocs will present additional arguments on which one has the right to nominate a candidate for the post of speaker of the Assembly.