Belgrade authorities extend detention to Serbs from Kosovo

News of Radio Free Europe confirmed his lawyer, Ivan Niniq, who said the detention measure has continued to three Serbs from Kosovo who are accused of being part of a “criminal organised group, whose goal was the violent change of government, means to overturn the constitutional order of the Republic of Serbia in northern Kosovo”.

According to lawyer Niniq, Serbs from Kosovo have continued their detention with the argument that they could influence witnesses during the trial procedure.

The prosecutor has proposed about ten witnesses, half of whom appeared and refused to give a statement, arguing that they fear for their safety. They did not want to participate further in this case, answer to defence lawyers' questions”, Niniq said, and added that other witnesses did not respond at all to the court's invitation.

Nniq said all witnesses have a common one, those “receive their salary from municipal budgets in northern Kosovo”, according to him, they are under “control of the Serbian List”, the largest party of Serbs in Kosovo. This party enjoys official Belgrade's support and is close to President Aleksandar Vuciq's Serbian Progressive Party.

Dragan Nikolic is former Kosovo police officer, who resigned in November last year as part of the Serb collective resignations in the north from Kosovo institutions.

Dragan Nikolic and three other Serbs from Kosovo were arrested in April as they crossed the border with Serbia. Serbian authorities have not made these arrests mediatic, but the arrest lawyers have announced the opinion on those cases.

The prison sentence in Serbia for crimes for which he is accused of plotting Serbia's constitutional order and calling for violent change in Serbia's constitutional order is ten years.

Ninoq reiterated his position that the case against his client is a politically mounted “procedure and that the prosecution has no concrete evidence against Nikolic.

Everything started when Serbs, who were nominated for witnesses, called police in 192 and denounced certain things, according to the principle of gossip. Nothing is verifiable, nothing can be proven”, he said.

Earlier, Niniq had told Radio Free Europe that his client is accused of distributing <x0 material propaganda, through which he promoted Kosovo's independence”.

The same is confirmed by the lawyer of another detainee, Ahmed Delimejac.

Under Serbia's Law for Criminal Procedure, the prosecution must file charges or release those arrested within six months.