Judge Sparks Controversy over Slain Kosovo Serb Politician’s Trial

The lawyer for murdered political party leader Oliver Ivanovic said on Tuesday that allegations made by Malcolm Simmons, former head judge at the EU's rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, showed that the war crimes prosecution of the Kosovo Serb politician was a "fabricated court case".

Simmons told MPs on Kosovo's Parliamentary Commission on Legislation on Monday that he was pressurised to bring forward the prosecution of Ivanovic for political reasons, in order to prevent him from running for office.

"The head of the [EULEX] mission… made it clear to me that he did not want Ivanovic to run in the next local elections in Kosovo," Simmons said.

BIRN contacted Simmons to clarify which head of the EULEX mission he was referring to, but did not receive an answer by the time of publication.

Ivanovic's lawyer in the war crimes case, Nebojsa Vlajic, told BIRN that he is "absolutely sure there is a lot of truth" in what Simmons said.

Vlajic said he did not know if EULEX was trying to "prevent Oliver from running". But he thought that the EU mission was under pressure because "they did not charge anyone with high profile, especially not a Serb, and they needed such a case".

Vlajic said that EULEX judges were "at a high level in terms of their expertise and professionalism" but that he did not believe in their impartiality.

Ivanovic was found guilty in 2016 of war crimes and sentenced to nine years in jail for ordering the murders of Kosovo Albanians. But the appeals court sent the case for a retrial, and the case was ultimately dismissed after Ivanovic was shot dead in 2018.

EULEX responded by saying that Simmons' claim was "unfounded" because Ivanovic "did take part in the November 2017 elections".

It said that its...