The Basic Court in Pristina on Tuesday ordered a one-month pretrial detention for a man suspected of participating in an attack against KFOR and Kosovo Police personnel in Zvečan in 2023.
The court stated that there is reasonable suspicion that the defendant, L.M., committed the following criminal offenses: “association for unconstitutional activity with the intent to attack the constitutional order of the Republic of Kosovo,” “endangering persons under international protection,” “attack on an official person,” and “participation in a crowd committing a criminal offense and hooliganism.”
The prosecution indicated that the suspect committed these offenses on May 29, 2023, together with several other suspects of Serbian nationality from Kosovo and Serbia.
The prosecution referred to clashes that occurred that day near the Zvečan municipal building, during which 93 members of NATO’s Kosovo mission (KFOR) were injured by some Serbian protesters. Protesters were also injured in the clashes.
The situation escalated as local Serbs opposed the entry of newly elected Albanian mayors into municipal buildings in Zvečan, Leposavić, and Zubin Potok—municipalities with a Serbian majority in northern Kosovo—following local elections held earlier that year. Local Serbs had boycotted the electoral process.
NATO has repeatedly called for those responsible for the violence to be held accountable.
In August of this year, the Basic Court of Pristina sentenced the defendant with initials M.A. to four years and eleven months in prison after he admitted guilt for the violence against KFOR soldiers in 2023.
The clashes between Serbian protesters and KFOR personnel in Zvečan on May 29, 2023, prompted the European Union to impose punitive measures on Kosovo, citing insufficient actions to de-escalate the situation.
These measures, which are believed to have cost the Kosovo budget millions of euros, have been gradually lifted since May of this year.
