UN calls for fair legal process against Tefik Mustafa in Serbia

A UN spokeswoman has issued this statement, in order to comment on the ban of Kosovo citizens Tefik Mustafa from Serbian authorities, at the border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia, Merdare, on 1 June.

A court in Belgrade has ruled against him for 30-day detention.

“We call on Serbian institutions to ensure a fair and transparent legal process for this case, as with any other arrest, in accordance with the rule of law”, is said among other things in the response of the US State Department.

Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister, Ivica Dacic, has said on June 1st that Mustafa allegedly, in the quality of Kosovo Parliamentary Army member, has been mentioned in witness statements as participants in the kidnapping of three police officials.

Kosovo's Foreign Ministry has considered Mustafa's detention an arbitrator and has called for the international factor for its release.

The ministry has also made the phone number +383 46 511, available for all Kosovo citizens who may find it difficult to face during their trip through Serbia.

In the past three years, several Kosovo citizens have been arrested in Serbia, as it has been said, allegations that they committed crimes during the war in Kosovo in 1998-99.

On 17 April of this year, Serbian authorities have arrested the other Kosovo citizen, Sadik Durak, under the same suspicion, at one of the Kosovo-Serbia border crossings.

His family has rejected the accusations, saying that Duraku lived in England at that time, along with his family.

Duraku has been arrested at a border crossing between Croatia and Serbia, and a Serbian court has assigned the detention measure the same month.

Recently, he has continued his detention measure for 30 days.

Earlier in the year, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has accused Serbia of, as he has said, unjust, deliberate and malicious arrests of Kosovo citizens. ? REL/