The interview Ivanovic sought not to be published had shown who the dark ruler of the north was.

He asked BIRN to keep that part of the interview out of the record, fearing possible revenge.

In the one-in-one interview, in the audio and recorded notes, Ivanovic confirmed that power in northern Kosovo was not with the elected institutions, but at “the information centres of power” and called Radovic linked to this information power system.

The power centre is not in the municipality building because the municipality building belongs to this other power information centre”, Ivanovic said.

He then added: “President [Serbian] Aleksandar Vucic cited Milan Radoic, who really worries me; it worries me deeply that he takes it as an example of a person fighting for the protection of Serbs in Kosovo “.

Ivanovic referred to Vuciqi's words at a press conference held in September, when he called Radojqiq one of the five men he thanked for Serbia's “defence in Kosovo”.

Despite urging BIRN not to publish his words about informal power centres, Ivanovic told BIRN journalist to remember Radojic's name.

“No, no, no, leave it there, remember it, you'll have that name there,” said Ivanovic, when the journalist started erasing Radoic's name from the notes.

Radojic, who has been the focus of attention in recent months, has close ties with political elites in Kosovo and Serbia, including Vuciqi and Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

He has faced legal charges in Serbia several times and is a close associate of Kosovo Serb contractor Zvonko Veselinovic.

Radociac refused to talk to BIRN about this article.

Ivanovic was shot dead in Mitrovica on 16 January outside of his party's offices of Freedom, Democracy Justice, which was opposed to the Belgrade-backed Serbian Party list of Srpska.

Ivanovic had said several times before he was killed that he and his family had received threats, and had sought help from Kosovo, Serbia and others, but without answer.

The murder case is still open and there have been no arrests so far.

There is no indication that Radojic has anything to do with the killings.

Political ties on all sides

A month after Ivanovic was killed, in February- despite his earlier description of Radojchi as one of those “who defend Coova”-Nukic told Serbian TV television that he had never spoken to Rad aiciqi, but may have attended any meeting where he was present.

The Serbian president also said Radoic has businesses in Serbia and northern Kosovo, and that he also knew that Ivanovic and Radojic had been fighting each other for several years.

“I knew of their conflict in the north (of Kosovo). The man (Radoicicic) knew that everyone would point their finger at him (for Ivanovic's murder)”, Vuciq said.

He said the conflict between Radoichi and Ivanovic had continued “since 2000”.

However, according to documents from a court case he has secured B The INR, Radoicic, was only 22 years old in 2000, and told the court that he had started working in Kosovo in 2008.

Ksenija Bozovic, who was deputy chairman of Ivanovic's party “Leri, Democracy, Justice”, meanwhile, said she has no information that Ivanovic and Radojic have ever met.

“In my knowledge and from what I heard family members Ivanovic told the media, they never met. I also don't know this man, and from what I've heard, he came to Mitrovica in the wake of 2015<18x1>, Bozovic told BIRN.

In July 2017, the Kosovo newspaper Express posted a photograph of a leader of a party of Albanians (now Kosovo prime minister), Ramush Haradinaj, with Radojciqi.

The two men were supposed to be discussing whether the Belgrade-backed party of Kosovo Serbs, the Serb List, would back the proposed Kosovo government, which included Haradinaj's party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo.

The Pridinaj coalition took the most seat in the Kosovo Assembly in the June 2017 elections, but was unable to form the keberia by September.

About two weeks before this photo was taken, Haradinaj invited the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, the Serbian List, to support his candidacy for prime minister.

A month later, he was elected prime minister with the crude support of the Serbian List.

On December 24th, while speaking of his good co-operation with the Serbian List, Ramush Haradinaj said in an interview for the show -- Slobodno Srpske -- that he also “works” with Radoiciqaj because he was an important figure.

Asked who Radojciq is, and if he is a politician, Hatadinaj responded that Radojciq was “a man from the north (of Kosovo), who is important for everything, and I talk to him”.

You shouldn't just be a politician, we all have a role here... I don't have direct ties to Belgrade at any level, but all those living in Kosovo are mediators for me”, Haradinaj said.

After the Serbian List won a convincing majority in Serb majority settlements in Kosovo's October local elections, the images of northern Mitrovica's local television, TV Most, at a celebration showed Radojchiqiqi, drinking champagne with Serbian List leader Goran Rakiq and marko Djuric, head of the Office for Kosovo in Serbia's government.

Radojici's alleged important role in the Kosovo Serb community had not drawn attention to Oliver Ivanovic's murder.

After his assassination, however, another Kosovo Serb politician, Rada Trajkovovic, said Radoicq “controls life” in northern Kosovo.

He controls life entirely in the north, decides for good and for bad”, saying Trajkovic for television N1 on January 17th.

After Trajkovic's interview, Radoicicic told BIRN that “speculation to his role in northern Kosovo were threatening the stability of that part.

“Indives and the public are engaged in speculations that are causing extraordinary damage above all for the Serbian people, the citizens of northern Mitrovica, as well as for my name and my family”, he said.

It is clear that the public in Kosovo wants to direct all attention to falsehood and spin in order to jeopardise stability, which is also fragile”, he said.

On February 19th, a journalist on the Serbian investigative website, Insider, asked Djuriqi about the role of Radojici in northern Kosovo and about his ties with the Serbian Progressive Party, which heads Serbia's government.

Djurovic said they had met several times and that Radoic was a businessman in Mitrovica. He did not answer the question of whether Radoic is a member of the Progressive Party.

A month earlier, however, Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Nebojsa Stefanovic told media that Radociq does not have any position in the party.

Business markets ended in court

The Supreme Court in Belgrade sentenced Radojciqi and his close friend, Zvonko Veselinovic, on charges of inciting abuse of official office in February 2015.

The prosecution in this case claimed that in 2010, Dragan Curciq, the owner of a company called Euro Cop, had banned payments for 32 vehicles rented by Hypo Alpe Adria.

Instead of turning the trucks back, prosecutors claimed that Curciq decided to give it to Veselinovic as a way of repaying a debt he owed him.

The prosecution also claimed that although he had known that trucks should return to the bank, Veselinovici and Radovici have pushed Curciqi to give the vehicles to use until Curciq paid off Veselinovic's debt.

The court sentenced Churciqi to three and a half years in prison, but released Radociqi and Veselinovic.

The tribunal's documents showed that Radoic was born in the town of Peja in 1978 and that he was registered as a resident in the central Serbian town of Kraleva.

According to Radojcik's statement in the court, he first met with Veselinovic in 2007, and both men referred to each other as “kum” (the best man or Godfather).

Veselinovic told the court that Radojic also helped him with his gas station near Mitrovica, helping “everything, with debtors and debt collection”.

Radoic told the court that his income came from investing “some money in trucks” and from a store his wife and mother have in Mitrovica.

Court documents also found that Radojcic has an earlier sentence, but information on charges and sentences were edited in line with personal data protection legislation.

Radocic himself told the court that he was in custody between 2009 and 2011, but did not explain the charges against him as well.