4 Kosovo Serbs, 3 of them former police officers, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 4 to 10 years in the case related to the murder of Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic.
In the case concluded at the Basic Court in the capital Pristina, Kosovo Serbs Nedeljko Spasojevic was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months, Dragisa Markovic and Zarko Jovanovic to 4 years each and Marko Rosic to 10 years in prison on charges of “supporting the organized criminal organization that planned the murder” and “abuse of official duty”.
Spasojevic, Markovic and Jovanovic were serving aspolice officers in the region at the time of the murder.
In a written statement, the Serb List, the largest Serbian party inKosovo, described the sentences as “cruel, baseless, devoid of any evidence and politically staged”.
“We want to tell (Kosovo Prime Minister Albin) Kurti and his supporters that the Serbian people know that this trial is a farce and will never see Rosic, Spasojevic, Nedeljkovic and Jovanovic as guilty of Oliver’s murder, but as victims of the Albin Kurti regime,” the statement said.
Ivanovic’s death
Oliver Ivanovic, President of the “People’s Initiative for Freedom, Democracy and Justice” in Kosovo, was seriously wounded in an armed attack in front of his office in North Mitrovica on January 16, 2018 and died in the hospital.
Ivanovic, who was also the commander of Serb paramilitary groups during the war in Kosovo, was sentenced to 9 years in prison in 2016 for crimes against Albanian civilians during the war.
The Supreme Court overturned this decision in 2017 and ordered Ivanovic to be retried. Ivanovic, who was tried without arrest before his murder, was known for his opposition to the Serb List.
The perpetrator or organizer of the murder of Kosovo Serb politician Ivanovic is still unknown.
