The Special Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo has filed an indictment against a suspect related to the attack on the members of the NATO mission in Kosovo, KFOR, in May last year in Zveçan.

The prosecutor’s office said in a press release on Monday that after several months of investigations, it filed an indictment against the suspect with the initials D.D., for two criminal offenses, assault on an official person, as well as participation in a crowd that commits criminal offenses and hooliganism.

According to the indictment, the suspect “in cooperation and coordination” with other defendants of Serbian nationality from Kosovo and Serbia, through “the use of violence, weapons and other strong tools, attacked and seriously threatened the soldiers of the peacekeeping mission of KFOR, and members of the Kosovo Police, causing bodily injuries and material damage” during the protests of April 29, 2023 near the Municipality of Zveçan.

The violence in Zveçan erupted when local Serbs objected to the entry of new Albanian mayors into municipal buildings in Zveçan, Leposaviq and Zubin Potok – municipalities in the north of Kosovo, inhabited by a majority of Serbs, after the May 2023 elections that they had boycotted.

The prosecutor said that he has asked the Basic Court in Pristina to keep the suspect in custody until the end of his trial.

In July, the Kosovo police arrested the suspect with the initials D.D. in the region of South Mitrovica in relation to these accusations. Later, the Kosovo Police in the north announced that it was about the arrest of Dushan Drobaci.

Kosovo has blamed Serbia for the events of the beginning of 2023 in Zveçan, saying that they were carried out by “criminal groups close to the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić”.

However, Serbia has denied such an accusation, accusing the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, of intending to push the Serbs “towards a conflict with NATO”.

Tens of people have been arrested so far for similar criminal offenses in connection with the attack on May 29, 2023 in Zveçan against KFOR soldiers, but most of them were released to defend themselves in freedom.

During the clashes, 93 members of KFOR were injured, some of whom had serious injuries.

Due to the violence in the north in May of last year, but also the attack on the Kosovo Police in Banjska i Zveçan in September, KFOR increased its military presence in Kosovo and now has around 4,700 soldiers.

KFOR is the third responsible for the security of Kosovo, after the Kosovo Police and the European Union mission for the rule of law, EULEX.