Kosovo Serb

Milena Ivanovic Popovic, the widow of murdered Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic, was proposed on Wednesday as a witness in a defamation case launched by businessman Milan Radoicic, who has been accused of leading a criminal organisation that killed Ivanovic.

Special Prosecutor Syle Hoxha, who is investigating last year's murder of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic, told BIRN on Tuesday that he wants to question Rada Trajkovic about her claim that she was offered a videotape of the killing.

Kosovo Serb politician Trajkovic made the claim to Serbian media on September 28, saying that she refused to take the tape.

Oliver Ivanovic. Photo: EPA-EFE/Andrej Cukic.

Syle Hoxha, the prosecutor working on the Oliver Ivanovic murder case, told BIRN on Tuesday that the probe has been widened to include two further suspects with possible links to organised crime.

The judge reads the acquittal decision in Zajic's case on Friday in Peja/Pec. Photo: BIRN.

Zajic was found not guilty of taking part in the killing of two people - one with disabilities - and of forcing ethnic Albanians out of a village in 1998 during the war in Kosovo.

The judges said the reason for the acquittal was the witnesses' "contradictory" testimonies.

Protesters rallied on Tuesday in the north of the divided town of Mitrovica, carrying placards with messages like "EU open your eyes", "All we are saying is give peace a chance", "They are beating and terrorising us", "We want peace - not new wars" and "Don't shut us in a ghetto".

A statement believed to have been posted on Facebook by Milan Radoicic, a businessman widely seen as the real power-holder in Serb-majority northern Kosovo, who is wanted in connection with the murder of politician Oliver Ivanovic, said the ultimate goal of a police raid on his home last week was to kill him.

After Serbian state-owned news agency Tanjug reported that a delegation from the main Kosovo Serb political party Srpska Lista (Serbian List) was in Washington to meet officials from the State Department, Congress and the Pentagon, the State Department said that it did not have any such meeting to announce. 

Serbia has insisted that the arrest warrant that it issued for Ramush Haradinaj in 2004 will remain in force now he is Kosovo's new prime minister, which could cause difficulties while travelling internationally in his new role, experts believe.

The decision by Kosovo Serb party Srpska Lista(Serbian List) to back the election of Kadri Veseli, from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, as the new parliamentary speaker on Thursday has drawn fiercely divided reactions in Serbia, where rightists accused it - and Belgrade - of surrendering to a war criminal.

Kosovo Serb political party chief Ivanovic, who was under house arrest pending his appeal against his recent war crimes conviction for ordering ethnic Albanians’ murders, was ordered back into custody.