Oliver Ivanovic Murder Suspects’ Trial Postponed in Kosovo

The start of the much-anticipated trial of six people accused of involvement in the murder of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic was postponed on Monday until February 11, 2020.

The six defendants - Nedelko Spasojevic, Marko Rosic, Silvana Arsovic, Dragisa Markovic, Zarko Jovanovic, and Rade Pasara - were all present at Pristina Basic Court but the trial's opening was delayed as a result of changes to the indictment.

Defendants Spasojevic, Markovic, Jovanovic and Basara were all Kosovo police officers before they were arrested, while Arsovic is a former administrative employee of Ivanovic's party.

Along with defendant Rosic, they are all accused of being part of an organised criminal group that killed Ivanovic.

Judge Valon Kurtaj told the court that Kosovo's Special Prosecution had filed a new version of the indictment on Friday, but "because of the weekend days off, [it] was not distributed to the accused and their lawyers".

Asked if they wanted more time to prepare, the defence lawyers responded by criticising the prosecution's behaviour.

They also complained that some of the evidence in the case had not been translated from Albanian into Serbian, the native language of the defendants, thus violating their rights.

Ivanovic, the leader of the Freedom, Democracy, Justice party, was gunned down in front of his party's office in Mitrovica on January 16, 2018.

Once seen as a hardline nationalist, Ivanovic had evolved into a political moderate who advocated coexistence between Kosovo's Serb minority and Albanian majority. He had also become increasingly vocal in his criticism of the Belgrade government.

At the time of his death, he was being retried for ordering the murder of Kosovo Albanians during...