Milan Radojic at large in northern Kosovo

This has been confirmed to Radio Free Europe attorney Zivojin Jokanovic, who, as he has said, repeatedly represents him.

“He is not charged with anything”, Jokanovic said.

“He is in Kosovo all the time, in Mitrovica, since the arrest warrant for his” has been lifted, Jokanovic stressed.

Radio Free Europe has proven that through the Serbian List, the Radojchiqi party, it has contacted him, but has so far failed.

What does the indictment say?

Milan Radoicic, deputy chairman of the Serbian List, this Kosovo Serb leader as well as businessman, along with another businessman from Kosovo's north, Zvonko Veselinovic, joins the killing of Oliver Ivanoviqi.

Ivanovic has been the leader of the opposition subject Civic Initiative “Freedom, Democracy, Justice”.

He was killed in front of the headquarters of this subject in northern Mitrovica by gun shooting in January 2018.

The Act has been raised against Nedelko Spasojevicki (Police Official), Marko Rossic (Citizen of Northern Mitrovica), Silvana Arsovic (Secretary of Oliver Ivanovic killed), Dragisa Markovik (Police Official), Zarko Jovanovic (Police Official) and Rade Basara (Police Official).

Among the suspects in the murder of Oliver Ivanoviqi, Zeljko Bojq (Kosovo Police Officer for the Northern region) is mentioned, Milan Radojicic (afarist) and Zvonko Veselinovic (afarist).

The three suspects have been on the run when the Kosovo Prosecution filed the first indictment.

In the indictment, Radoic and Veselinovic are mentioned as “leaders of the criminal group”, which planned the murder of Serbian politician Oliver Ivanovic.

Three charges have been filed so far, and they (Radoic and Veselinovic) are mentioned since the first indictment”, says Jovana Filipovic, lawyer of accused Silvana Arsovic.

In the question of whether the charge has ever been filed against them, Filipovic says:

“No, they are not persons charged in the process, because the Kosovo Criminal Procedure Code prohibits the establishment of the indictment against persons who are not accessible to Kosovo's prosecution organs”, Filipovic said.

Why hasn't Milan Radojcik been arrested?

Kosovo police, on November 23rd of 2018, carried out action in northern Kosovo, with the goal of arresting persons suspected of killing Oliver Ivanovic. Several people were then arrested, but Milan Radociq was not in his apartment during this police action.

Afterwards, Radoicci himself was directed to the opinion with a communiqué, with claims that “has no connection with the murder of Ivanovic” and that “in his apartment had only gone with one intention of killing”.

He also ordered that he would not surrender to the Kosovo Police, meanwhile for speculation about his whereabouts, he wrote:

I'm just saying I'm close, I'm waiting and I'm looking at”

For judicial organs in Serbia, Milan Radojic has been known since 2011. At the time, against him and Zvonko Veselinovici, there was an indictment, with which both were accused of embezzlement 32 Hypo Alpe Adria Leasing trucks.

The incident was set up near the Special Court in Belgrade and coincided with the time when Belgrade's decision was made to start dialogue with Pristina and the call for Serbs from northern Kosovo to remove the barricades.

Both in 2016 have been released with an all - powerful decision.

What is highlighted about Radojchi in the indictment?

As reported in the Kosovo Special Prosecutor's Act of November 2020, in which Free Radio Europe has had access, Radojic has been described as “the leader of the organised criminal group”, which planned in detail the murder of Oliver Ivanovic and in which the group dominated the clearly defined hierarchy of participants.

The accused are charged that from 2014 to 2018, they have been part of the criminal group leading by Milan Radojici and Zvonko Veselinovici and that they have consistently tried to put Mitrovica in control of the North.

The accused, knowingly and deliberately, are stressed, have helped this criminal group with the intention of committing criminal acts, the murder of Oliver Ivanovic.

What did the prosecutor promise?

Prosecutor Burim Qerkeyni said during the trial on July 6th that in this process there will be clear evidence for organising Oliver Ivanovic's murder.

The “those who committed the murder are not in court. Their identity is still unknown to”, Kerkin said, but has also stressed that the Special Prosecutor will provide evidence that the accused, who are present in court, participated in removing the murder barriers, abused the official position, participated in co-operation with persons who committed the murder.

Is there any explanation for lifting the warrant for arrest?

Against Radojici there has been an arrest warrant, which was issued in August 2019, when Abelard Tahiri, then justice minister, had said that “has been completed the file of Milan Radosic for the murder of Oliver Ivanovic and that he was sent in order to issue an international arrest warrant”.

The arrest warrant for Radocicin has been announced because it was not accessible to Kosovo's judicial organs, but was removed in early March 2021. Why this happened, no one in Kosovo has spoken.

Information about the removal of the lawyer for Radocicin has not communicated with any judicial institution, but about local media in Kosovo, Judge Valon Kurtaj had earlier confirmed this. Free Europe Radio has failed to receive a statement from Kurtaj.

Ehat Miftaraj from the Kosovo Institute for Justice estimates it makes no sense that in connection with the case of Oliver Ivanovic's murder, mentioned in the indictment Milan Radojciq, as leader of the criminal flu, while, to this day, the prosecution has not filed an indictment.

Miftaraj considers that the prosecutor has no evidence to file charges against Radojici, considering that the order to arrest him has been withdrawn.

“From the view of the criminal procedure and current legislation in Kosovo, the only reason why an international arrest warrant should be revoted is in cases when the prosecution refuses to launch criminal procedures against Radojic, due to the lack of evidence that he was involved in murder”, Miftaraj told Radio Free Europe.

What questions are not answered?

Radio Free Europe has been addressed with questions to the Kosovo Prosecutor, the prosecutor of the case, Burim Kerin, the Constitutional Court in Pristina, the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, the Kosovo Police, as well as former prosecutor Syla Hoxha, who in December 2019 had filed the first indictment in the case of Oliver Ivanovic's murder.

The answers they have returned mainly concern placing responsibility on the Pristina Constitutional Court, near which the judicial process is under way in the Ivanovic case.

In the question of why the removal of a lawyer for Milan Radocicin has been sought, since in the indictment he is mentioned “as leader of the criminal group” that has planned the murder of Ivanovic, the Kosovo Prosecutor has responded briefly, saying “matches with the competent court”

From the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, they say they do not comment on the court's decisions, adding “direct to the court that leads in case”.

From prosecutor Burim Qerkeyni, from the Constitutional Court in Pristina and from the Kosovo Police to publishing this text, the answers have not come.

What has Prime Minister Kurti's party asked for?

The ruling party, Prime Minister Albin Kurti's Vetevendosje Movement, at the beginning of March of this year, has called on the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council to react in the case of the decision to abolish Radojic's arrest order.

The Kosovo government has not responded to whether competent institutions have clarified the decision on Radoichi, which Vetevendosje had called the largest post-war criminal “.

Radoiciqi in Serbia

From the end of 2018 to the removal of the taskmaster, Radoic has remained in Serbia, where he regularly participated in meetings with senior officials there, after several months after Ivanovic's murder, was elected deputy head of the Serbian List, which was formed with the backing of official Belgrade in 2013.

The Serbian list today holds power in all Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo. In the last parliamentary elections, held in February this year, the Serbian List has won ten seats in the Kosovo Assembly, which are guaranteed for the Serb community, while in the Government of Kosovo it has taken over the Ministry for Communities and Kthim, top of which is Goran Rakiq, chairman of the Serbian List.

Also, at the top of the ten Serb-run majority municipalities in Kosovo, there are the Serb List cadres.

Radojic, as the political representative of Serbs in Kosovo, was last seen at Serbia's Assembly session on 22 June, in which Serbia's President, Aleksandar Vuciq, had reported on Kosovo.

In line is the third indictment

In the three-year term, the Kosovo Special Prosecutor has filed three charges in the case of Oliver Ivanovic's murder.

The preparation session was held only on the basis of the second and third indictment and defendants Nedelko Spasojevicq, Marko Rossic, Rade Basara, Silvana Arsovic, Dragisa Markovic and Zarko Jovanovic were acquitted.

The latest indictment, under which the first hearing was held at the Constitutional Court in Pristina on July 6th, in which all parties had the right to issue an opening statement, stipulates that the four accused (Spasojevic, Rospic, Basara, Arsovovic) were part of a criminal group that worked for the murder of Oliver Ivanovic, while two others (Dradisa Markovic and Zharko Jovanovic) have been engaged in hiding evidence, knowingly, misusing their official duty.

“There is convincing evidence that these four have been part of the organised criminal group, which has been operating in northern Mitrovica from 2014 to 2018, and that they are responsible for the serious murder of Serbian politician Oliver Ivanovic, on January 16th, 2018-1818x1>, prosecutor Burim Qerkey said in his opening remarks.

He has added that it is important to note that this group of accused had not acted alone, but that there were other “ ”, of which there is suspicion that they participated in organising the murder.

However, he also stressed that the authors of the assassination on Oliver Ivanoviqi are still unknown.

The prosecution has warned that in general, about 100 witnesses will be taken.

What did the Kosovo Prosecution say earlier?

The first indictment against six people in question, the Special Prosecutor established it on December 2nd of 2019, while against Milan Radojici, Zvonko Veselinovic and Zelko Bojici, international arrest warrant has been issued, considering that they were on the run.

In the first indictment, it was said that the alleged criminal group had not been formed by accident, but it has been operating since 2011, while at the very top of it were Milan Radojic and Zvonko Veselinovic.

Similarly, at one of the media conferences, on October 16, 2019, in Pristina, on the case of the murder of Oliver Ivanovic, then special prosecutor Syla Hoxha, declared that there were well-organised criminal groups in northern Mitrovica, led by Milan Radojic, for whom an international arrest warrant was issued.

We are now waiting for that arrest warrant to be implemented”, then prosecutor Hoxha said at that conference, on the eve of the establishment of the first indictment, on December 2, 2019.

He then presented information that Milan Radojic's so-called criminal group had influence on the Kosovo Police as well as other municipal structures in northern Mitrovica.

Meanwhile, at the end of December 2019, Silas Hoxha presented the second amended indictment, but he soon withdrew, and the case was taken by the new special chief prosecutor, Blerim Isufaj.

At the first preparation session, on February 11th of 2020, Isufaj said the defendants in the Oliver Ivanovic case acted as an organised criminal group, led by defendants Zvonko Veselinovic and Milan Radojic.

“All defendants have acted consistently and actively in the group's criminal activities, given that they would thus contribute to the realisation of the group's criminal activities and the realisation of financial, direct or non-direct or other benefits, in order to establish control over businesses and politics in North Mitrovica”, Isufaj stressed.

Lawyer Jovana Filipovic, who is protecting accused Silvana Arsovic, says that in the following period, the evidence will be presented by questioning witnesses. The third indictment was filed in November 2020 after the Court of Appeals in Pristina turned it into the prosecutor for fulfillment. Based on the third indictment, so far a session has been held in February, where the accused were acquitted, while then the first hearing, on July 6th, where the parties held an opening speech.

Three witnesses will be heard in one day. We have received three mandates for September”, Filipovic told Radio Free Europe.

What preceded the murder of Oliver Ivanovic?

Oliver Ivanovic was the bearer of the “Freedom, Democracy, Justice Oliver Ivanoviq” list, which was held in November 2017.

During the pre-election campaign for those local elections, due to the intimidation of Serbs in northern Kosovo, four candidates from his list withdrew, meanwhile, his cars were burned in northern Mitrovica.

At the time, with 1.051 votes, he won a seat at the Northern Mitrovica Municipal Assembly.

Also, early in 2014, Ivanovic was one of the candidates for mayor of North Mitrovica, when he was arrested under suspicion of committing war crimes against Kosovo Albanian civilians in 1999 and 2000.

In 2016 he was sentenced to nine years in prison. The Kosovo Court of Appeals ordered a retrial in February 2017. In April, his house arrest was lifted and he was allowed to defend himself with freedom.

Oliver Ivanovic, chairman of the civic initiative “Liria, Democracy, Justice”, was shot dead in front of his party's facilities in northern Mitrovica on January 16th 2018. He was shot by a moving vehicle, Opel Astra, without a license plate, which was found burned that very day.

In addition to Kosovo, the investigation into the murder of Oliver Ivanovic is under way by Serbia's Special Prosecution, which has not moved beyond the pre-investigative procedure, although Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq, on 3 July 2019, has said that “Belgrade thinks his name is the killer's”.

On that occasion, he also said Milan Radociq “is not flower”, but that he has nothing to do with the murder of Oliver Ivanovic.

“With everything we received from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Information Agency, we can say with certainty that Radoiciac did not participate in the liquidation of Oliver Ivanovic”, the president of Serbia had said then.

Kosovo and Serbia accuse each other of having failed to co-operate in the matter of clarifying Oliver Ivanovic's murder.