Serbian Politician Reportedly Killed in Kosovo

12:59 16.01.2018

Sputnik

Medics were unable to save the life of Oliver Ivanovic, leader of the political party GI SDP, after he was gunned down in the city od Kosovska Mitrovica in a Kosovo's region that borders southern Serbia.

Ivanovic was shot in the chest five times outside his office on Tuesday. The politician later died in a local hospital, his lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic said to local news outlet b92.

SDP party official Ksenija Bozovic has said to RSE that police officers have found the three shell casings at the scene. They have currently blocked the northern districts of Kosovka Mitrovica to locate the perpetrator.

Ivanovic was one of the key politicians in the predominantly Serbian nortern part of the region. In Serbia, he served as the State Secretary of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija till 2012.


The EU's Rule of Law Mission (Eulex) in Kosovo sentenced him to nine years in jail for nine years for alleged war crimes. However, the ruling was canceled in February 2017 and a new trial was ordered.

Boris Malagurski, a Serbian producer, twitted that prior to the assasination, several members of the SDP, left the party because of the threats.


​Following the news of the killing, the Serbian delegation has ended talks in Brussels and returned to Belgrade to hold an urgent internal security council meeting.

The tensions in northern Kosovo, which has a large Serbian population, remain high almost a decade after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.