‘Fearful’ Witness in Kosovo Serb Politician’s Murder Trial Changes Testimony

A witness at the trial for the 2018 killing of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic, told Pristina Basic Court on Wednesday that he wanted to change the testimony he previously gave to Kosovo's Special Prosecution.

The witness, who the judges asked media not to name for security reasons and to avoid witness-tampering, said he made the decision because he is afraid.

"I did not promise anyone that I would change my statement but I am not insane enough to risk my family… there is something called fear and I do not want to talk about that," said the witness, who claimed that he used to be a good friend of Ivanovic.

He said there was an informal "law of silence" in the Serb-dominated north of Kosovo, where Ivanovic was killed, and that he made a mistake by getting involved in the legal process.

He said that the main reason he wanted to change his initial statement, which was given in June 2018, was that he had stated that "Belgrade is to blame" for the murder of Ivanovic, who was shot dead outside his political party's office in Mitrovica in January 2018.

"Today I am not so sure," the witness explained.

Ivanovic's Freedom, Democracy, Justice party was in opposition to the main Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, Srpska Lista, and he has warned said several times before he was killed that he and his family had received threats.

The first witness this week, Ksenija Bozovic, who was the vice-president of Ivanovic's party, declined on Tuesday to tell the court the names of organised criminal groups which the slain politician had warned her about before his murder.

Mahmut Halimi, the lawyer for one of the defendants, Marko Rosic, told media after the hearing that the two witnesses who have been heard so...