Berlin requested an urgent explanation from the Serbian authorities regarding the accusations leveled against Germany by Interior Minister Bratislav Gašić.
Gašić previously stated that the "murderer" of Oliver Ivanović is "under the protection" of the German authorities, and that Berlin is not providing the requested information to Serbia.
"We resolutely reject insinuations that the perpetrator is under the protection of German authorities," said a spokesman for the German government in a written response to DW's inquiry.
"The federal government has no knowledge of who killed Oliver Ivanovic on January 16, 2018, and has asked the Serbian government to clarify the accusations of the Serbian interior minister as soon as possible," the response added.
The Government in Berlin did not specifically answer the questions about whether the accusations could have consequences for the relations between the two countries, as well as what Serbia specifically requested and what the German services forwarded regarding the murder of Ivanovic.
"Germany and Serbia cooperate closely in many fields that connect us," the answer states in general.
A mysterious questionnaire
On Wednesday (June 21), Serbian Police Minister Bratislav Gašić (SNS) stated at the Assembly session that the Serbian authorities "know exactly who the killer is" and added:
"And we asked the German authorities, under whose protection that man is at the moment, to give us data," said Gašić.
After the denial that first arrived from the German embassy in Belgrade, Gasic claimed the next day that his words were mistranslated, that is, that the questionnaire was missing.
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According to Gašić's new claims, he only asked if "that man" was under the protection of the German authorities, although the sentence was clearly formulated as a statement and nowhere can one recognize a questioning tone.
"Does he consider the media and all of us (plus the Germans) to be stupid and illiterate?" asked Filip Švarm, editor-in-chief of the Vreme weekly, in one comment. According to his interpretation, Gašić clumsily accused Germany of "state terrorism" and then tried to extricate himself from the situation.
What is unclear
As DW learns from a source in Belgrade, when Gasic mentions the alleged killer, he means a German citizen of Albanian origin. But, apart from the fact that it is impossible to confirm Gašić's version of the story, it remains unclear what it means that someone is "under the protection" of the German authorities.
The Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office, which has been investigating the murder of Oliver Ivanovic for years, told Insider that the matter is still in the preliminary investigation phase. In translation - there is neither an indictment nor a warrant.
In two presentations, Gašić stated that Serbia requested satellite images, then that the "German security guards" did not provide Serbia with the videos from the scene that they allegedly requested from the Kosovo police, as well as the results of expert reports from the premises of Ivanović's party that were carried out in Wiesbaden, Germany .
However, it is unlikely that Berlin will publicly react to these allegations. As is heard in circles close to the German government, the details of cooperation between the intelligence services and the police in such matters must remain confidential in order for cooperation to be possible in the future.
Targeted from Belgrade and Pristina
Back in 2019, the Kosovo Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment for "assisting in the murder" of Oliver Ivanovic, but not for murder.
Prishtina accuses an alleged criminal group under the leadership of Milan Radoičić and Zvonko Veselinović of "helping". The two are not directly accused, nor are they available to the Kosovo Prosecutor's Office.
"The fact is that Ivanovic has been politically targeted for years," says the Belgrade Insider. "To this day, it has not been revealed who set his car on fire, broke into his apartment, who set fire to his party's premises, and who secretly filmed him and delivered the footage to tabloids in Serbia before the murder."
As one of the political leaders of the Serbs in Kosovo, Ivanovic spent years in Kosovo custody on charges of alleged war crimes. The first-instance verdict was annulled, and Ivanovic was released in early 2017.
About a year later, he was shot from behind in North Mitrovica in front of his party premises. Since then, Belgrade and Pristina have been accusing each other, and the investigation has stalled.
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