Oliver Ivanovic

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.

Ksenija Bozovic, who was the vice-president of Oliver Ivanovic's Freedom, Democracy, Justice party, declined on Tuesday to tell Pristina Basic Court the names of organised criminal groups which the slain politician warned her about before his murder in Mitrovica in Kosovo in January 2018.

Three years after the initial indictment for the murder of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic, the first witness was heard in the trial at Pristina Basic Court on Monday.

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.

Members of the assembly of Srpska Lista, the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, on Tuesday re-elected Goran Rakic as president and Milan Radoicic as a party vice-president by unanimous decision. The assembly also elected Igor Simic and Dalibor Jevtic as vice-presidents.

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".

The trial for the murder of Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic opened on Tuesday at Pristina Basic Court with the prosecution saying it will prove that the defendants participated in removing obstacles to the killing, abused their official positions and collaborated with the killers, who have not yet been arrested.

The trial began by verifying the identities of the accused and acquainting them with their rights.
At the suggestion of the lawyer, the indictment was not read to them because they were already familiar with it, and all the accused stated that they understood the allegations of the indictment and that they were not guilty, RTS reports.

Alternative for Germany MP, Jens Kestner, posed this question in the Bundestag yesterday.

The Court of Appeals in Pristina on Tuesday confirmed the third version of the indictment accusing six people of being part of an alleged organised criminal group that was responsible for the killing of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic in January 2018, clearing the way for the start of the trial.