Milan Radoičić is the vice-president of the largest party of Serbs in Kosovo and a businessman, who was mentioned by the authorities in Pristina and Belgrade in a completely different context.
For Kosovo, the wanted "fugitive" is someone who "controls Serbian criminal groups in the north" and is "behind unrest and crises" in that region.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, on the other hand, described him as someone who "protects Serbia in Kosovo" and "is the first to stand on the sidelines" of the Serbs in the north of Kosovo.
Radoičić was blacklisted by the US Department of Finance in December 2021 due to his involvement in international crime and corruption.
Kosovo Interior Minister Dželjalj Svečlja accused Radoičić of having organized and participated in the attack on the Kosovo police on September 24, when one policeman was killed. In support of his claims, Svečlja also published a video on September 26, stating that it was "another proof of his terrorist activity against the Republic of Kosovo."
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How did you hear about Milan Radoičić?
Milan Radoičić was born in Đakovica in the southwest of Kosovo.
He has been known to the judicial authorities in Serbia since 2011. Then he and Zvonko Veselinović, another businessman from the north of Kosovo, were indicted for misappropriating 32 trucks from Hipo Alpe Adria Lizing.
The indictment was filed before the Special Court in Belgrade, and it 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.
That's how Milan Radoičić started business in Serbia as a free man.
He is a co-owner of the construction company INKOP from Cuprije with the Veselinović brothers, in which he has 40 percent ownership.
In recent years, INKOP also bought construction companies Novi Pazar - put and Betonjerka Aleksinac.
INKOP also owns the hotel company Dolly Bell, which owns the Grej Hotel on Kopaonik.
Relations with the Kosovo authorities
In 2017, the former prime minister of Kosovo, Ramuš Haradinaj, referred to Radoičić as a man from the north of Kosovo "who wonders about everything".
According to some media reports, in 2017, Radoičić met with the leader of the New Kosovo Alliance, Bedžet Pacoli.
A photo was published in which Pacoli was in the company of the President of the Serbian List Goran Rakić and Radoičić on a luxury yacht in Montenegro.
Also, in 2018, Radoičić was received in his cabinet by then Prime Minister Ramuš Haradinaj.
Haradinaj also admitted that on one occasion he was with former President of Kosovo Hashim Thaci in the cabinet.
Radoičić himself spoke about his contacts with Kosovo officials. In March 2019, he told Klan Kosova Television that he met with Thaci and Haradinaj.
"I met with both of them, and I also met with others. They promised the Serbs towers and cities, that they would be on their side and not on the other side. But, we cannot violate Serbian vital interests," said Radoičić.
Milan Radoičić is the vice-president of the Serbian List, the largest party of Kosovo Serbs that has the support of Belgrade, he became a few months after the murder of the Serbian opposition politician Oliver Ivanovic. His mandate was extended in July 2021.
The recent mention of Radoičić in the Assembly of Kosovo led to a fight among the deputies in July of this year.
This happened due to harsh criticism from the opposition after the publication of audio recordings in which it is mentioned that the head of the parliamentary group of the Mimoza Self-Determination Movement, Kusari Ljilja, spoke with Milan Radoičić.
Earlier attempts to arrest Radoičić in Kosovo
The Kosovo police tried twice to arrest Milan Radoičić on the basis of two different warrants, but without success.
The action was carried out for the first time on November 23, 2018, with the aim of arresting Radoičić as a suspect in the murder of Serbian opposition politician Oliver Ivanović. Several people were arrested then, but Milan Radoičić was not in his apartment.
Radoičić himself then addressed the public with a statement stating that "he had nothing to do with the murder of Ivanovic", and that "they came to his apartment with only one goal – to kill him".
He also said that he would not surrender to the Kosovo police, and regarding the speculations about his whereabouts, he wrote: "I will only say that I am close, that I am waiting and observing".
In the meantime, the Kosovo Prosecutor's Office issued a warrant for Radoičić in 2019 because he was linked to the murder of Ivanovic, but it was withdrawn in 2021 without any explanation.
At the beginning of February 2022, Milan Radoičić managed to avoid arrest for the second time by escaping from the Brnjak border crossing in the north of Kosovo. The Kosovo Police then announced that they asked Radoicic to park the vehicle for further investigation, and that he then drove away quickly back to the territory of Serbia.
Because of that event, three members of the Kosovo Police were suspended.
Then a warrant was again issued for Radoičić, which is still in force.
Radoičić's messages and presence at the barricades
At the beginning of July 2022, Milan Radoičić addressed the public with a video message from the vicinity of Leposavic, one of the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo with a majority Serb population.
"To my people in the north, and to all Serbs, let me just say, and to those others, I am here, I am back, and you know what that means. Because there is no going back from here, long live Serbia," said Radoičić.
He said that "the real terror against the Serbian people is just beginning".
Already at the end of the same month, Radoičić attended the barricades erected by local Serbs due to the Government's decision to issue certificates for entry into Kosovo with Serbian personal documents and to cancel the license plates issued by Serbia for cities in Kosovo.
This was confirmed by his Serbian List after accusations by the Kosovo Minister of the Interior, Dželjalj Svečlja, that the party is "politically devalued" and that it cooperates with criminal groups.
"Radoičić joined the protests and was with the citizens and the leadership of the Serbian List all the time, to the general delight of all those present who then felt safer and protected, because, as always when he was with them, he took care of safety and security each," they stated.
How he was mentioned in Serbia
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, openly defended Milan Radoičić, alleging that he is one of those "guarding Serbia in Kosovo".
The President of Serbia, referring to information from the Security Information Agency, regularly claimed that Radoičić did not participate in the liquidation of Oliver Ivanovic.
"Milan Radoičić is, of course, neither an academic, nor a painter, nor a writer. That's why, along with all the other things he can't always be proud of and none of us are happy about, he was always the first on the North Mitrovica side," Vučić said in 2018. for RTS.
Then, in September 2021, he claimed that he had never spoken with the vice-president of the Serbian List, Milan Radoičić.
"I never spoke with Milan, unless he was present at the meetings when I conveyed messages to the people from Kosovo, so people from the Serbian List were also sitting there," said Vučić.
Radoičić was present at almost all meetings of the Serbian List with Serbian officials from Belgrade.
Under American and British sanctions
In December 2021, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Radoičić, along with Zvonko Veselinović, his brother Žarko, and ten other people associated with them.
The clarification stated that Radoičić was Zvonko Veselinović's deputy and the leader of an organized criminal group when Veselinović retired. Also, it was said that Radoičić was responsible for smuggling weapons to Veselinović's organized crime group. Radoičić did not plead to these charges.
According to US authorities, Veselinovic's criminal group is involved in an extensive bribery scheme, along with Kosovo and Serbian security officials, that facilitates the illegal trade of goods, money, narcotics and weapons between Kosovo and Serbia.
A year later, in 2022, Radoičić was also sanctioned by the United Kingdom as part of its global anti-corruption scheme.
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