Oliver Ivanovic

Kosovo police said they arrested two suspects - one of them a police officer - in the Serb-majority north of Mitrovica early on Wednesday morning in connection with the unsolved murder of Oliver Ivanovic in January 2018.

Another suspect, also a policeman, is also wanted for arrest, police added.

They are suspected of being involved in the murder of Oliver Ivanovic, Pristina-based Kosovapress reports.
Reportedly, one of those arrested is a police investigator in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, Rade Basar, who has been investigating the murder of Oliver Ivanovic and is suspected of hiding evidence.

Special Prosecutor Syle Hoxha, who is investigating last year's murder of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic, told BIRN on Tuesday that he wants to question Rada Trajkovic about her claim that she was offered a videotape of the killing.

Kosovo Serb politician Trajkovic made the claim to Serbian media on September 28, saying that she refused to take the tape.

The family of the murdered Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic have asked the Kosovo Election Commission to forbid the main Kosovo Serb party, Srpska Lista, SL, from using his name in the October elections after a senior official of his party defected to the SL.

Djuric stated that the deceased Oliver Ivanovic's party Civic Initiative "Freedom Democracy Justice" decided to join the Serb List in order to support its country, strongly condemning the pressure exerted on Ksenija Bozovic due to such decision.

"Serbs on Kosovo and Metohija presently need unity and the support of the Serbian state to survive and preserve their state and national interests", it is said in a statement of Civic Initiative SDP, carried by Kosovo online.

This statement had caused strong reactions of Kosovo officials, including the former lawyer of Ejupi, Mahmut Halimi, who denied those allegations. Following Serbian President's indication at a news conference, Halimi confirmed for "inFocus" paper, that Ejupi turned to the German judicial authorities, and reported Vucic, the KoSSev portal reported on the writing of Prishtina's "Gazete Expres".

That's what President Aleksandar Vucic warned about on Wednesday.

Kosovo police launched raids in the early hours of Tuesday morning in the Serb-majority north of the divided town of Mitrovica, sparking an angry reaction from Serbia.

Ten people have been arrested so far, and the police action is ongoing, according to a BIRN reporter.

The US, French, German, Italian and British embassies in Pristina - known collectively as the Quint group - issued a statement on Monday expressing worries about "restricted electoral competition" at mayoral elections in Serb-majority north Kosovo on May 19.