Leader of the civil initiative “Freedom, Democracy, Truth” Oliver Ivanovich was killed on Tuesday in Kosovo Mitrovica as a result of an attempt. This was reported by the newspaper Blic referring to the lawyer of the politician.
“He seems to have died right on the spot.We now know that he received five gunshot wounds, he was immediately transported to the hospital, the doctors were trying to save him, but it was useless,” said the lawyer Ivanovich Nebojša Vlaich.
Kosovo police confirmed the fact of the assassination, saying that the politician is in the hospital, and all law enforcers are directed to search for the attackers.
As reported by the media, the attempt was committed when the politician entered the building of his party. At the moment, people gather near the party building and the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica, the police block adjacent neighborhoods.
Oliver Ivanovich is one of the leaders of the Kosovo Serbs, in the past – Secretary of State in the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija affairs in the government of Serbia. Since January 2014, Ivanovich, along with four other Serbs, was imprisoned for war crimes against the Albanian civilian population in Kosovo and Metohija in 1999 and 2000.
In August 2015, Ivanovich went on a hunger strike and, due to deterioration, was transferred from prison to a hospital. Nevertheless, on January 21, 2016, he was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of war crimes committed against Kosovo Albanians in 1999.
In February 2017, the verdict of the court of first instance was abolished and a new trial began. Ivanovich was under house arrest, and from April 2017 he was allowed to defend himself in court while being at large.