Current:Home > InvestSerbian authorities have detained the alleged organizer behind a recent shootout with Kosovo police -Clarity Finance Guides
Serbian authorities have detained the alleged organizer behind a recent shootout with Kosovo police
View
Date:2025-04-24 19:37:50
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian police on Tuesday detained an ethnic Serb leader from Kosovo who was the alleged organizer behind a recent shootout with Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region.
Police said they also searched the apartment and other property in Serbia belonging to Milan Radoicic, a politician and wealthy businessman with close ties to Serbia’s ruling populist party and President Aleksandar Vucic.
Police gave no other details. A statement said Radoicic was ordered to remain in custody for 48 hours.
Later on Tuesday, prosecutors said Radoicic was questioned under suspicion of a criminal conspiracy, unlawful possession of weapons and explosives and grave acts against public safety.
Radoicic allegedly got weapons delivered from Bosnia to Belgrade before stashing them in “abandoned objects and forests” in Kosovo, prosecutors said. The statement said that Radoicic and others in his group on Sept. 24 allegedly endangered the lives of people in the northern Kosovo village of Banjska.
Radoicic denied the charges, the prosecutors said.
The arrest comes amid an international outcry over the Sept. 24 violence in which around 30 heavily armed Serb men set up barricades in northern Kosovo before launching an hours-long gun battle with Kosovo police.
Kosovo has accused Serbia of orchestrating the “act of aggression” against its former province whose 2008 declaration of independence Belgrade doesn’t recognize. Serbia has denied this, saying that Radoicic and his group acted on their own.
Radoicic was a deputy leader of the Serbian List party in Kosovo, which is closely linked with Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party. He is know to own large properties both in Serbia in Kosovo, and has been linked by investigative media to shady businesses.
After the clash, Vucic has spoken favorably of Radoicic, portraying him as a true patriot who wants to defend Kosovo Serbs from alleged harassment by Kosovo Albanian authorities.
European Union and U.S. officials have demanded from Serbia that all the perpetrators of the attack, including Radoicic, be brought to justice. Radoicic, 45, has been under U.S. sanctions for his alleged financial criminal activity.
Serbia has said it has withdrawn nearly half of its army troops from the border with Kosovo, after the United Sates and the EU expressed concern over the reported buildup of men and equipment.
The flareup in tensions between Serbia and Kosovo has fueled fears in the West that the volatile region could spin back into instability that marked the war years in the 1990s, including the 1998-99 war in Kosovo.
That conflict ended with NATO bombing Serbia to stop its onslaught against separatist ethnic Albanians. Belgrade has never agreed to let go of the territory, although it hasn’t had any control over it since 1999.
The latest violence in the village of Banjska was the most serious since the 2008 independence declaration. Serbia is an ally of Russia, fueling fears that Moscow was trying to stir up trouble in the Balkans to avert attention from the war in Ukraine.
Reflecting Western concerns over the situation, NATO has announced it would send more troops to its 4,500-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo, known as KFOR. The mission was established in 1999, after Serbia was forced to pull out of the territory.
Washington and Brussels have sought to negotiate an agreement that would normalize relations between Serbia and Kosovo, but a tentative deal earlier this year has produced no progress.
veryGood! (88)
Related
- A White House order claims to end 'censorship.' What does that mean?
- Debunking Climate Change Myths: A Holiday Conversation Guide
- Eva Mendes Proves She’s Ryan Gosling’s No. 1 Fan With Fantastic Barbie T-Shirt
- A single-shot treatment to protect infants from RSV may be coming soon
- Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
- Chicago West Hilariously Calls Out Kim Kardashian’s Cooking in Mother’s Day Card
- Hydrogen Bus Launched on London Tourist Route
- Why Olivia Wilde Wore a White Wedding Dress to Colton Underwood and Jordan C. Brown's Nuptials
- San Francisco names street for Associated Press photographer who captured the iconic Iwo Jima photo
- The Top Moisturizers for Oily Skin: SkinMedica, Neutrogena, La Roche-Posay and More
Ranking
- Angelina Jolie nearly fainted making Maria Callas movie: 'My body wasn’t strong enough'
- Michigan County Embraces Giant Wind Farms, Bucking a Trend
- Love Coffee? It’s Another Reason to Care About Climate Change
- Rebel Wilson Shares Adorable New Photos of Her Baby Girl on Their First Mother's Day
- Rylee Arnold Shares a Long
- What kind of perfectionist are you? Take this 7-question quiz to find out
- UV nail dryers may pose cancer risks, a study says. Here are precautions you can take
- 2017’s Extreme Heat, Flooding Carried Clear Fingerprints of Climate Change
Recommendation
Charges tied to China weigh on GM in Q4, but profit and revenue top expectations
Chicago West Hilariously Calls Out Kim Kardashian’s Cooking in Mother’s Day Card
Author Aubrey Gordon Wants To Debunk Myths About Fat People
RHONJ: Teresa Giudice's Wedding Is More Over-the-Top and Dramatic Than We Imagined in Preview
North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
Hollywood Foreign Press Association Awards $1 Million Grant to InsideClimate News
Ohio to Build First Offshore Wind Farm in Great Lakes, Aims to Boost Local Industry
Sitting all day can be deadly. 5-minute walks can offset harms