Oliver Ivanov's murder, Serbian arrest lawyers warn complaints

The Constitutional Court in Pristina has placed a month-long detention measure against three suspects arrested in the north over the SDP leader's murder, Oliver Ivanovic.

Dragisa Markovic, Marko Rosic and Nedelko Spasojevicq have appeared before the Constitutional Court in Pristina today after being arrested Friday under suspicion of involvement in the murder of Serbian politician in northern Mitrovica, while police are also searching for two other suspects linked to the case. Among them is Milan Radojcic, deputy chairman of the Serbian List.

The fourth Serb arrested yesterday, Sasa Curciq, is expected to appear before the tribunal in Mitrovica, as he is not accused of killing the Serbian politician but of obstructing the Kosovo police duty.

Lawyer Dejan Vasic has said the indictment regarding Ivanovic's murder is largely based on media speculation and nothing more.

We haven't yet read the reasoning of this decision, but what the Prosecutor available to the subject is actually soft, thin words. Here are reports described by the media, nothing else. What they have stressed in the detention decision are no evidence at all, are media speculations and nothing more. When you write to Google about the murder of Oliver Ivanovic, the ones that come up on Google, these are the” goals, he said.

While other lawyer Milos Delevic said the defence side would complain once they have made the decision in the Serbian language.

I consider it in the interest of Serbs, but also in the interest of Albanians to light up Oliver Ivanov's murder. However, the greatest interest reigns in respecting rights and rule of law. We consider the law to determine the detention of our clients to be violated, as there is no doubt that they committed criminal acts that they are burdened with. As for the complaint, we will file complaints when the decision comes to Serbian language”, he said.

Suspect Nedelko Spasojovic's lawyer has indicated that the three Serbs arrested under suspicion of killing Ivanovic have been sent to the punishment, but that they were not told the country. He has voiced confidence that those arrested are innocent and that they will be released, as according to him, there is no basis for committing the criminal work they are burdened with.

“After today is a day of no work, we have not made the decision in the Serbian language. According to court information, we'll get this on Monday when the 24-hour period of complaint begins. If the detention ruling is based on the real situation the prosecution and the court are in, we are convinced that this case will end up in favour of the defendants for them to be released.

In the Constitutional Court communiqué, it was said to have found that the requirement for imposing the detention measure against the defendants is adequate and necessary in this phase of the procedure, for ensuring their presence in criminal procedure and the unhindered development of the procedure, also based on the way and circumstances in which criminal acts were committed, the burden of criminal acts, so that if the defendants remained in freedom they could repeat the same or similar criminal acts.

Otherwise, Oliver Ivanovic was killed on January 15th, about 0900 before his party headquarters in northern Mitrovica.