The Serbian delegation is interrupting the technical dialogue with Prishtina in Brussels and returning to Belgrade in connection with the news about the murder of Serbian politician Oliver Ivanovich in Kosovo.
This was announced on Tuesday by Tanjug agency head of the Chancellery for Kosovo and Metohija under the Cabinet of Marco Djuric.
“The murder of Oliver Ivanovich is a terrorist act whose aim is to destabilize the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, this is an attack on the entire Serbian people.” In connection with the murder of Oliver Ivanovich, we stop the negotiations and immediately return to Belgrade, “the agency’s statement in Brussels said.
Oliver Ivanovich is one of the leaders of Kosovo Serbs, in the past – Secretary of State (Deputy Minister) 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, because of a deterioration in his health, was transferred from prison to a hospital. Nevertheless, on January 21, 2016, Oliver Ivanovich 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.
