Srpska Lista

Residents of four Serb-majority municipalities on Sunday overwhelmingly boycotted a vote on removing their ethnic Albanian mayors from office following last year's mayoral elections.

In Kosovo, extraordinary local elections will be held on 23 April 2023 in four predominantly Serb municipalities in the north of Kosovo (Severna Mitrovica, Leposavić, Zubin Potok and Zvečan) to elect the municipal mayors as well as councilors for the municipal councils in Leposavić and Zvečan.

Kosovo authorities have been installing containers in four Serb-dominated northern municipalities to be used as polling stations on Sunday, when voters are called to cast ballots in disupted local elections that most locals are likely to boycott.

Members of the Serbian parliament, from both the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, and opposition, came into physical conflict during a debate about the former province of Kosovo and a European proposal to resolve Serbia-Kosovo relations.

Chief State Prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi said on Wednesday evening that the arrest warrant for Milan Radoicic, suspected of being one of the heads of a criminal organsiation that murdered political party leader Oliver Ivanovic in January 2018, was withdrawn for "technical and tactical reasons" but insisted that "the criminal case against him continues".

Two witnesses at the trial for the 2018 killing of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic at the Pristina Basic Court on Tuesday showed reluctance to confirm previous testimonies they gave to the prosecution in which they named alleged members of organised criminal groups that operate in the Serb-dominated north of Kosovo.

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.

Responding to calls to dismiss a Kosovo Serb government minister, Goran Rakic, head of the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party, after his controversial statements, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Thursday said sacking him would not help anything.

"The issue is not Rakic. Dismissal would turn him into an issue," Kurti said on Thursday, ahead of municipal elections due on Sunday.

The authorities deployed special police units on Monday morning in Serb-majority northern Kosovo after hundreds of Serbs blocked roads near the Jarinje border crossing point and in the municipality of Zubin Potok in protest at the government's decision to make them use Kosovo vehicle licence plates instead of Serbian ones.

Belgrade Higher Court has dismissed a defamation case launched by controversial Kosovo Serb businessman and politician Milan Radoicic against rival Kosovo Serb politician Rada Trajkovic, who accused him of being implicated in the shooting of Oliver Ivanovic in 2018.