Former Kosovo PM Ceku arrested

"Agim Ceku was arrested on Tuesday, in Gushevo, at the entry point into Bulgaria, because of a red arrest warrant that Interpol has issued against him," Bulgarian police spokeswoman Diana Jankulova said.

According to the Fokus agency, he has been placed in custody for 24 hours, with the option to remand him in custody for a further 48 hours. A spokesman for Ceku's Social Democratic Party of Kosovo, Gezim Kasapoli, confirmed his arrest.

He said that Ceku had been arrested on the Bulgaria-Macedonia border "at around 17:30 on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by Serbia on May 9." According to Kasapoli, the former Kosovo prime minister had journeyed to Sofia for talks with Bulgaria's deputy interior minister and other senior officials.

He said that diplomatic talks were under way to secure his release and "we expect he him to be released in the early hours of Wednesday." In the indictment that the Serbian judiciary raised, Ceku, a former Kosovo Liberation Army commander, is accused of command responsibility for the deaths of 669 Serbs and 18 other non-Albanians.

Ceku has already been arrested on two previous occasions-the first time in October 2003, at Ljubljana Airport, and the second time at Budapest Airport, in February 2004, though he was released on both occasions. He was also deported from Colombia in May 2009 on the basis of an Interpol warrant.

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic has confirmed the news of Ceku's arrest.

He said that he believed that the Justice Ministry should immediately send an extradition application, since political pressure would soon begin to be exerted from various sides to secure the former Kosovo leader's release.