Slain Kosovo Serb Politician’s Widow Testifies in Murder Trial

Testifying via video link from Serbia at Pristina Basic Court on Friday, Milena Popovic, the widow of murdered Kosovo Serb opposition politician Oliver Ivanovic, said her husband did not voice any concerns about his safety before he was shot dead in the north of the ethnically-divided city of Mitrovica in January 2018.

"I can certainly say that if he had just one per cent fear, he would have removed our youngest son from Mitrovica, but he had no doubt or fear," Popovic told the court.

However, Popovic said that she had asked Ivanovic to move their family to Belgrade for "the family's safety" because in 2017, his car was torched, and she claimed that she had also been attacked.

Before his death, Ivanovic had complained that he had received threats. He had become increasingly vocal in his criticism of the Belgrade government, and was an opponent of the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb political party Srpska Lista.

Asked whether she knew the businessman Zvonko Veselinovic, and the vice-president of Srpska Lista, Milan Radoicic, who have been accused of being the leaders of the organised criminal group that killed Ivanovic, she said she didn't "know them personally".

However, she said that Ivanovic had a polite relationship with Veselinovic.

"Radoicic was a political opponent and he [Ivanovic] didn't like him, that is all I know," she testified.

Radoicic and Veselinovic have denied any wrongdoing. Neither man has been charged.

The indictment accuses Marko Rosic, Silvana Arsovic, Nedelko Spasojevic and Rade Basara of being members of a joint criminal enterprise that organised the assassination of Ivanovic in Mitrovica in January 2018.

Two police officers, Dragisa Markovic and Zarko Jovanovic, are also on trial,...