Powerful Serb Returns to Kosovo After Arrest Warrant Revoked

Milan Radoicic, who was wanted for arrest as the alleged leader of an organised criminal group responsible for the murder of political party leader Oliver Ivanovic in January 2018, has returned home to Serb-majority northern Kosovo after being on the run for more than two years, police told BIRN.

Police said Radoicic re-entered the country on Tuesday, after Pristina Basic Court revoked a warrant for his arrest on March 1. His jeep with Belgrade plates has since been spotted in the street in the north of the ethnically-divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica.

Milan Radoicic's jeep in Mitrovica in northern Kosovo this week. Photo: BIRN.

Radoicic, a businessman and vice-president of the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party who has been described as the real power-holder in northern Kosovo, has denied involvement in the killing of political rival Ivanovic.

A few days after the withdrawal of the warrant for Radoicic's arrest, Syle Hoxha, a retired special prosecutor who investigated the Ivanovic murder case, told BIRN that court's decision was unexpected.

"I had evidence against him. The revocation of the arrest warrant could harm the process," Hoxha said.

The indictment for the murder of Ivanovic alleged that Radoicic and another prominent Kosovo Serb, Zvonko Veselinovic, were leaders of the criminal group responsible for the killing, and accused several policemen of aiding the crime.

In November 2018, Kosovo police special forces tried to arrest Radoicic, but did not find him at home in Mitrovica. Instead, they said they found 75 grammes of cocaine. Radoicic fled to Serbia and again denied any wrongdoing, accusing police of seeking to kill him.

Officials from Serbia's ruling Progressive Party, which supports Srpska Lista in...