Six years have passed since politician Oliver Ivanovic was shot dead in North Mitrovica, and the crime has not been brought to justice to this day.
Oliver's brother Miroslav Ivanović said in a statement to Radio Free Europe (RSE) that he and other family members can let "time heal the wounds" only when Oliver's killer and the mastermind behind the murder is found and punished.
Then, he adds, they might be able to find "peace of mind".
"Someone, with six shots in the back, decided to take (Oliver's) life out of political motives and interests. We as a family live with that to this day. It is difficult to experience, there are many things that bring us back to the moments of that crime. Time heals everything but in this case, very difficult," says Miroslav Ivanović.
Official Pristina and Belgrade started separate investigations on the day of the murder of Serbian opposition politician Oliver Ivanovic, January 16, 2018.
Who was Oliver Ivanovic
Oliver Ivanovic was the holder of the "Freedom, Democracy, Justice - Oliver Ivanovic" list in the Kosovo local elections, which were held in November 2017, a few months before his murder.
During the pre-election campaign for those local elections, due to the intimidation of Serbs in the north of Kosovo, four candidates from his list withdrew and his car was set on fire in North Mitrovica.
At the beginning of 2014, he was also one of the candidates for the president of North Mitrovica, when he was detained on suspicion of having committed war crimes. In February 2017, the Court of Appeal of Kosovo ordered a retrial of Oliver Ivanovic, after he was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2016 for war crimes against Kosovo civilians in 1999 and 2000.
The retrial began on March 24, 2017, and on April 21, Ivanović's house arrest was lifted and he was allowed to defend himself from freedom.
Killed on January 16, 2018, with six shots in the back, in front of his party premises in North Mitrovica, Kosovo.
In Kosovo, the trial is nearing its end and a new indictment
Six years later, the end of the trial is approaching in Kosovo based on the third amended indictment that was brought in 2020, but not against the perpetrator or the principal, but against persons who were allegedly part of the "criminal group that participated in the organization of the murder of Oliver Ivanovic".
The accused are Nedeljko Spasojević (police officer), Marko Rošić (citizen of North Mitrovica), Silvana Arsović (secretary of the murdered Oliver Ivanović), Dragiša Marković (police officer), Žarko Jovanović (police officer) and Radeta Basara (police officer). All of them defend themselves from freedom.
Željko Bojić (former head of operations of the Kosovo Police for the northern region), Milan Radoičić (former vice-president of the Serbian List) and Zvonko Veselinović (businessman from the north of Kosovo) are also linked to the murder.
Charges have not been brought against the three of them because they are on the run.
At the end of December 2023, the public was informed that another indictment had been brought against a person with the initials M.M., due to the suspicion that he was a member of an "organized criminal group" linked to the murder of Ivanovic, but also for "obstructing the judicial process", "intimidation " and "falsification of documents".
Certain media outlets in Kosovo reported that it was Milan Mihajlović from Leposavic, nicknamed "Pop", who, after spending a few months in detention, was also released to defend himself.
Miroslav Ivanović, a retired judge, says that he is not familiar with that name or initials, and that for him "it is a new face in the whole story".
What was proven in court?
The defendants are accused of being part of a criminal group headed by Željko Bojić, Zvonko Veselinović and Milan Radoičić from 2014 to 2018, and of continuously trying to bring North Mitrovica under their control. The indictment also states that the defendants knowingly and intentionally assisted that criminal group in order to commit the crime of murdering Oliver Ivanovic.
Thus, Nedeljko Spasojević is accused of aiding in the commission of a serious murder, that is, of taking the perpetrators of the assassination in the official car of the Kosovo Police to the Opel Astra car from which Oliver Ivanovic was shot.
Žarko Jovanović is accused of hiding evidence at the place where the murder took place, and Dragiša Marković is accused of abusing his official duty by "giving information to a police officer from Serbia".
The Special Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo accuses Marko Rošić of aiding in the commission of the crime of aggravated murder, that is, of following Oliver Ivanović's every move with his vehicle.
Also, Silvana Arsović is accused of being a member of a criminal group that she helped commit a serious murder by turning off the video surveillance cameras at the time of the murder.
Faruk Korenica, one of the defense lawyers, said in a statement to RSE that all the witnesses have been questioned, and that some material evidence and the defense of the defendants are to be presented. However, he could not say when closing arguments and a verdict are expected.
According to his assessment, the prosecution failed to prove its claims during the court process, and he expects that the accused will eventually be acquitted.
"It started from zero and will end with zero. That item was used for political purposes, and it is not good for someone to suffer because of it," he says.
Also, lawyer Jovana Filipović does not believe that by the end of the court process, the name of the killer or the principal will be revealed because, as she says, "we have not learned anything new."
"What we argued five years ago, when this court process began, is what we can repeat today, which is that all the evidence that is voluminous in fact does not prove the substance, and that is what we are interested in," she says. for RSE.
RSE also addressed the Special Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo with a question whether they were able to prove their claims in court, bearing in mind that a verdict should be handed down soon, but the answer did not arrive.
Trial without key witnesses
Miroslav Ivanović indicates that the prosecution mainly relied on anonymous witnesses, who withdrew during the trial because they were afraid for their safety.
RSE wrote about this in October 2022, when lawyer Faruk Korenica said that it was the Prosecution that made "inexcusable omissions", i.e. that it revealed the identity of anonymous witnesses through interrogation, who then withdrew out of fear.
The Kosovo Institute for Justice previously assessed for RSE that Prosecution witnesses in the case of Oliver Ivanovic's murder can certainly become protected. Kosovo normally has a Commission for the Protection of Victims, which decides on the inclusion of persons in the victim protection program. That commission consists of the chief prosecutor, the director of the Investigations Department in the Kosovo Police and the director of the Directorate for Witness Protection.
Miroslav Ivanović, a retired judge and the brother of the murdered Oliver, notes that the Kosovo Prosecutor's Office did nothing to protect those anonymous witnesses.
"I say, the outcome of those proceedings is under a big sign, what will happen and how it will end," he adds.
Two memorials on the anniversary of the murder
On January 16, two commemorations were held in North Mitrovica on the occasion of the anniversary of the murder of Oliver Ivanovic.
The first, organized by family and friends, was held at the time of Ivanović's murders at 8.15:10 a.m., and the second, organized by his SDP party, at XNUMX a.m.
The first mention was also attended by representatives of opposition parties from Kosovo and Serbia, as well as the civil sector. On this occasion, Dejan Nedeljković from North Mitrovica addressed the crowd, who said that Oliver Ivanovic has not been forgotten and expressed the hope that they will not have to wonder "who killed Oliver Ivanovic" for the next 20 years.
On another note, Ksenija Božović, a former close associate of Oliver Ivanović, said that the trial, which is nearing its end, does not indicate who ordered the murder, and that the killer is still at large.
"Perpetrators must answer to the face of justice as well as those who ordered them," she said.
On the other hand, representatives of the Government of Serbia attended the commemoration on the occasion of the anniversary of the murder of Oliver Ivanovic in the Temple of Saint Sava in Belgrade.
The director of the Office for Kosovo, Petar Petković, assessed that "the truth always finds its way, no matter how hard some try to hide it and abuse it".
Also, the coalition "Serbia against violence" has announced a protest for January 16 in the center of Belgrade on the occasion of marking the sixth anniversary of the murder of Oliver Ivanovic.
In Serbia, without indictment and trial
In Serbia, the investigation into the murder of Oliver Ivanović is being conducted by the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime of Serbia, which did not respond to RFE's inquiry as to the stage of the proceedings after six years, nor what information they have obtained.
Earlier, the Prosecutor's Office referred to the fact that the case was classified as classified.
And Miroslav Ivanović says that the investigation in Serbia is "under the veil of secrecy" all the time.
On the fifth anniversary of this murder, the Prosecutor's Office told Insider that "the preliminary investigation against the unidentified perpetrators is still ongoing."
In June 2023, Serbian Minister of the Interior Bratislav Gašić stated that the Serbian authorities "know exactly" who killed Oliver Ivanovic, and that the Serbian police were looking for that man from the German authorities "whose protection he is under".
After Germany denied that it was protecting the killer of Ivanovic, Gašić said that his statement was misinterpreted, that is, it was transmitted without a question mark, which gives it a different meaning.
In the middle of last year, when asked by RSE about this statement by Gašić, the answer was that "the prosecution specifically did not advertise the measures taken during the pre-investigation procedure, nor will it do so in the future."
Two months later, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić apologized to Germany for Gasić's statement.
On the third anniversary of Ivanovic's murder, in January 2021, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said that the Serbian authorities have had a complete picture of those who might have a motive and who might be involved for months.
"But we couldn't be present at the investigation, so we don't have what we would call direct evidence. For that, we need either some of the materials from the investigation to appear in our hands or a direct confession from one of the participants," Vučić said.
The President of Serbia also stated in mid-2019 that "Belgrade thinks it has the name of the killer Oliver Ivanovic". Addressing the public, he said that Milan Radoičić "has nothing to do with this crime".
"Milan Radoičić is not a flower, but we can say with certainty that Radojičić did not participate in the liquidation of Oliver Ivanovic in any way," said the President of Serbia at the time.
By the way, Milan Radoičić is on the US blacklist due to his involvement in international organized crime, and Kosovo is looking for him because of intimidation in court proceedings and attacks on the Kosovo police in Banjska in the north of Kosovo. After a Kosovo policeman and three Serb attackers were killed in that attack, Radoičić took responsibility.
'Cooperation between Kosovo and Serbia is crucial'
Kosovo and Serbia do not cooperate when it comes to solving the murder of Oliver Ivanovic, and his brother Miroslav believes that this cooperation would be crucial.
"We should have respected the interest that it was a murder that attracted much more public attention. That fact alone made any, even tacit, cooperation between the two prosecutor's offices, Kosovo and Serbia, in order to work on elucidating that part worth it," he says. he also expresses his fear that politics prevailed after all.
Astrit Kolaj (Kolaj), a senior researcher at the Kosovo Institute for Justice who is monitoring the trial process in the case of the murder of Oliver Ivanovic, recalls that the former president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, had a telephone conversation with the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and that the need to enough time to do their work independently and in a professional manner.
In the reports of this researcher, which were published as part of the monitoring of 30 hearings, it is indicated that the prime ministers of Kosovo and Serbia at the time, Ramuš Haradinaj and Ana Brnabić, had contacts regarding the case of the murder of Oliver Ivanovic.
"While Kosovo, through the former Minister of Justice Abeljard Tahiri, expressed readiness for cooperation and exchange of information to shed light on this case, this readiness was absent from Serbia's side," concludes Koljaj.
He also reminds that Kosovo's warrant for Milan Radoičić was canceled due to his connection with the murder of Oliver Ivanovic, and that the prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor's Office, Bljerim Isufaj, admitted at a press conference that he had given his consent to such a thing.
However, he did not reveal the reasons.
Astrit Koljaj concludes on the basis of monitoring that the court process in the case of the murder of Oliver Ivanovic is "rather complex and unclear", and that the bad relations between Kosovo and Serbia affected the very course of the investigation and the court process.
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