The 45 people were charged in absentia for their alleged involvement in the 2023 shooting that left four people dead near the town of Zvecan in northern Kosovo.
On Wednesday, Kosovo prosecutors indicted 45 people for their alleged participation in the attack on law enforcement officers near the Banjska monastery September 24, 2023.
A Kosovar policeman and three Serbian gunmen were killed in an ambush in the north of the country, an attack that Kosovo accuses Serbia of being behind.
Among those charged in absentia is Milan Radoičić, a politician and wealthy businessman with ties to Serbia’s ruling populist party and President Aleksandar Vučić.
Kosovo Prosecutor Naim Abazi clarifies that *Milan Radoičić is considered the leader of the group and that he “played a significant role in the coordination and criminal activity”**.*
Last year, the businessman fled to Serbia, where he was briefly detained on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, illegal possession of weapons and explosives, and serious acts against public safety.
Milan Radoičić has always denied these accusations, althoughHe previously admitted that he was part of the paramilitary group involved in the shooting.
The businessman has also been subject to US and British sanctions for his alleged criminal financial activities.
Serbia maintains that Milan Radoičić and his group acted on their own initiative.
Crimes punishable by life imprisonment
The 45 people are accused of violation of the constitutional and legal order, terrorist activities, financing of terrorism and money launderingcrimes punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Naim Abazi believes that this is the case “the most complex his office has ever had to deal with”adding that he had cooperated closely with international institutions, Brussels and Washington to build “strong accusations”.
EU and US representatives demanded that Belgrade bring the perpetrators to justice and are pushing for Kosovo and Serbia are implementing the agreements reached early last year by Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
These agreements provide in particular that Kosovo undertakes to create a community of Serbian municipalities, a union of municipalities with a Serbian ethnic majority.
Kosovo was a Serbian province until a 78-day NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ended a conflict between Belgrade government forces and Kosovo Albanian separatists that left around 13,000 people dead, mostly Albanians.
After becoming a UN protectorate, Kosovo declared independence in 2008a decision recognised by most EU member states, the US and the UK, but not by Serbia.