Today it is seven years since Serbian politician Oliver Ivanovic was unsolvedly murdered with six shots in the back in front of the building of his Citizen Initiative party in northern Mitrovica.
Two years before the murder, in 2016, Ivanovic was found guilty in the Basic Court in North Mitrovica and sentenced to nine years in prison for war crimes and crimes against the civilian population in 1999-2000.
Ivanovic was not taken into custody but was under house arrest. There were reactions and dissatisfaction to this decision from the injured party and family members. Experts on the justice system in Kosovo also described this decision as unfair.
In February 2017, Kosovo’s Court of Appeal ordered a retrial against Ivanovic after he was sentenced to nine years in prison.
The retrial began on March 24, 2017, while Ivanović was released from house arrest on April 21 and was allowed to defend himself at liberty.
Ivanovic was a member of the “Freedom, Democracy, Justice – Oliver Ivanovic” list in the local elections in November 2017.
Four suspects were arrested in northern Mitrovica on November 23, 2018 in connection with his murder.
In 2022, the trial began against people suspected of being part of the criminal group that organized the murder of Ivanovic.
The Basic Court in Pristina sentenced the four defendants in the Ivanovic murder case to 20 years in prison – Marko Roshiq to 8 years in prison for aggravated murder and a fine of 10,000 euros, Nedelko Spasojevic to 4 years and 6 months in prison and a fine of 4,000 Euro fine, Dragisha Marković 4 years in prison for complicity in the crime of murder and Zharko Jovanović 4 years in prison for complicity in the crime and a 1,500 euro fine for possession of a weapon.
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