A court in Pristina sentenced four people to more than 20 years in prison on Friday, accused of being involved in the murder of local Serbian politician Oliver Ivanović six years ago, while the suspects are on the run.
The Basic Court in Pristina sentenced Nedelko Spasojevic, a former member of the Kosovo police, to four years and six months in prison for the criminal offense of participation in an organized criminal group, VOA writes.
Marko Rošić was sentenced to ten years in prison for the crime of participating in an organized criminal group that organized a murder.
Dragisha Markovic and Zharko Jovanovic, both former members of the police, were each sentenced to four years in prison for the criminal offense of abuse of official position.
The court acquitted Silvana Arsovic, the former secretary of Mr. Ivanovic, while a few days earlier, in the absence of evidence, the accused Rade Basara was also released.
Oliver Ivanović, who led the Serbian citizens’ initiative, “Freedom, Democracy, Justice”, was shot in front of his office in the north of Mirtovica on January 16, 2018. In the period before he was killed, he had become a fierce critic of the Serbian government and the Serb List, the main political entity of the Kosovo Serbs, which was founded and is supported by Belgrade.
Oliver Ivanovic was killed while awaiting retrial on charges of war crimes against the civilian population. In January 2016, a court led by the European Union’s Rule of Law Mission found him guilty and sentenced him to nine years in prison on “war crimes” charges, and in February 2017, the case was reversed in retrial by the Court of Appeal in Kosovo.
Today’s convicts for involvement in his murder were arrested in several operations in the north of Kosovo in 2018, while the judicial process began in 2021, under charges of “participation or organization of a criminal group related to the criminal offenses of serious murder and the criminal offense of misuse of official position or authority”.
The indictment also names the former vice president of the Serbian List Milan Radojčič, and the businessman Zvonko Veselinović as leaders of the organized criminal group that committed the murder.
Both are sanctioned by the United States of America, while Milan Radojčič is wanted by justice in Kosovo, after taking responsibility for the September 24, 2023 attack on the Kosovo police in the north, during which a police officer was killed.
