Istok

PRISTINA - The lawyer of a Kosovo-Metohija Serb arrested by Pristina's authorities on Sunday confirmed to Tanjug on Monday he had appealed a decision by the Pristina Basic Court to place his client in 30-day custody.

The returnee family Jankovi in the village of Blagaa in the municipality of Istok had an auxiliary building burned down, and the damage is estimated at four to five thousand euros.
Duan Jankovi says that many things were burnt in the fire.

US Ambassador to Kosovo Jeffrey Hovenier (l), Istog/Istok Mayor Ilir Ferati (c) and Minister for Communities and Returns Nenad Rasic (r), visit the burned house in Veriq/Veric on July 11, 2023. Photo: Ilir Ferati/Facebook.

Driton Rugova, police spokesperson for Peje/Pec region, told BIRN that Svetislav Veric's house suffered material damages from the fire set by unknown persons.

Haki Rugova, mayor of the western Kosovo municipality of Istog/Istok, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment by the Basic Court of Peje/Pec on Monday.

Kosovo police officer stands at the entrance of the Agency for Development of Agriculture on a raid on February 24, 2021. Photo: BIRN

Confirming the arrests, Chief Prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi said that 10 of them are officials and two are ordinary citizens.

He recalls that it was a warm evening when the detainees were brought to the prison in the village of Gurrakoc/Djurakovac, which was already overcrowded with inmates. The violent abuse started immediately.

Acting President Vjosa Osmani paid tribute at Ibrahim Rugova's memorial in Pristina, saying that the path that he paved "remains a permanent guideline" for Kosovo.

From Paris student to campaigner for Albanian rights

Rugova in Pristina in April 1998. Photo: EPA/SRDJAN SUKI.

War victims' groups and Pristina-based rights campaigners criticised recent attempts by MPs in Pristina to revoke a law which allows the new Kosovo Specialist Chambers to operate.

The president of the Association of Missing and Kidnapped Persons from Kosovo and Metohija, Ranko Djinovic, said that repealing the law would be an "injustice".

Unknown assailants stoned a bus carrying around 40 Serbs in the village of Padaliste, in the municipality of Istok in Kosovo on Thursday evening.

No one was injured, but damage was done to the vehicle, that has license plates issued in Kosovo and was en route from Belgrade to Gorazdevac when it came under attack.