Milan Radoičič, the man who was wanted early this morning by the special units of the Kosovo Police Rosu, unofficially refers to the "gray eminence" of the north of Kosovo. The Kosovo authorities announced that the arrest was carried out as part of the investigation into the murder of Oliver Ivanovic.
Radoičić gained the attention of the wider public after the murder of the long-time political leader of the Kosovo Serbs, Oliver Ivanović, when the Kosovo politician Rada Trajković mentioned his name as someone "who holds power in Kosovska Mitrovica".
Ivanovic asked the BIRN journalist not to publish that part of the interview because he was afraid of retaliation, but to remember that name. The leader of the Kosovo SDP was killed in January 2018.
Aleksandar Vučić, the president of Serbia, said in an interview that Radoičić is someone who is the "guardian of Kosovo", that after the murder of Ivanovic he would say that he did not know him personally, but that they might have attended some joint meeting.
The current Prime Minister of Kosovo, Ramuš Haradinaj, also boasted about his acquaintance with Radoicic, who called him "a man important to everyone in the north of Kosovo".
"I work very well with my fellow Serbs - with Deputy Prime Minister Dalibor Jevtić, with ministers Nenad Rikal, Todosijević. I work with Mayor Rakić, I also work with Slavko Simić, I also work with people from the North - Milan Radoičić, for example, a man important to everyone in the North," explained Haradinaj.
In July 2017, the Pristina portal Gazeta Express published a photo of Radoičić with Haradinaj.
Although Radoičić did not hold any position at the time, the Pristina media indicated that Haradinaj then met with him as the most influential figure of the Kosovo Serbs, and that they negotiated for the Srpska lista party to support Haradinaj's mandate and enter the Government of Kosovo.
A month after the meeting, Srpska lista supported Haradini's mandate.
Marko Đurić, Director of the Office for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, confirmed his association with Radoičić in February this year.
Đurić replied that he met with Radoicić several times and that he is a businessman in Mitrovica. At the time, Đurić did not answer the BIRN journalist whether Radoičić was a member of SNS.
Radoičić was appointed as its vice president at the meeting of the Serbian List, the largest party in the north of Kosovo, in June of this year.
Milan Radoičić and his godfather Zvonko Veselinović were accused in 2011 of illegally misappropriating 32 trucks belonging to Hipo Alpe Adria Lizing.
The indictment was brought before the Special Court in Belgrade in 2011, and the timing coincided with Belgrade's decision to start dialogue with Pristina and the call to Serbs from the north of Kosovo to remove the barricades. Both were legally acquitted of the charges in 2016, Serbian Insider reports.
Veselinović stated before the court that Radoičić helped him with money for the pump, but also for "debt collection" from debtors.
According to court documents, Radoičić was previously convicted, but due to the law on the protection of personal data, the information about why, when and what sanction was imposed on him was crossed out.
Radoičić himself told the court that he was in custody from 2009 to 2011, but the documents do not say why.
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