Oliver Ivanovic

The Serbian government sees the trial of Citizens' Initiative SDP leader Oliver Ivanovic as "a political trial par excellence."

Belgrade will demand from the international community that he be immediately released pending a verdict, the head of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said on Friday.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - The defense team of Citizens' Initiative SDP (GI SDP) leader Oliver Ivanovic has filed an appeal against a verdict by which Ivanovic was sentenced to nine years in prison, the GI SDP said in a release on Monday.
    

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - The defense team of Citizens' Initiative SDP (GI SDP) leader Oliver Ivanovic has filed an appeal against a verdict by which Ivanovic was sentenced to nine years in prison, the GI SDP said in a release on Monday.

Oliver Ivanovic will be allowed to leave jail on Wednesday "for several hours" in order to attend his 5-year-old child's birthday celebrations.

The decision was made by the Basic Court in Kosovska Mitrovica, Radio Kontakt Plus has reported.

Kosovo Office Deputy Director Dusan Kozarev has rejected the allegations of a former U.S. and UN diplomat regarding the case of Oliver Ivanovic.

Several hundred Serbs took to the streets of the Kosovo town of Mitrovica to support politician Oliver Ivanovic, who was jailed for ordering the murder of ethnic Albanians in April 1999.

Citizens gathered on Friday in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica in support of leader of the Citizens' Initiative SDP Oliver Ivanovic.

He was last week found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to nine years in prison.

Marko Djuric says the jailing of Oliver Ivanovic on Thursday is "perceived by Serbia and the Serb people as a fist in the face of the state and nation."

Oliver Ivanovic has been taken to prison, his lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic confirmed for Tanjug on Thursday.

The Serb politician from northern Kosovo was until today under house arrest.

Serbian officials alleged the war crimes conviction of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic was an attempt to calm anger in Kosovo about a new tribunal that will try KLA guerrilla leaders.