Appeals court upholds decision to detain Oliver Ivanovic

In a statement to the press, Gudeljevic said that on January 28, at the request of the international prosecutor from the office of Kosovo's special prosecutor, an international judge of the Kosovska Mitrovica Basic Court placed Ivanovic in one-month detention. Ivanovic's attorney Nebojsa Vlajic told Tanjug that he received the decision extending his client's detention on Tuesday around 6 p.m., but that it was dated as early as February 1."By this second-instance decision my appeal has been rejected, and the decision on detention upheld. The Appeals Court has been governed by exactly the same non-existent reasons for the detention that have been stated by the first-instance court and disputed in an argumented way by the appeal of the defence", Vlajic said. Vlajic is convinced that the Appeals Court has yielded to pressure resulting from an unprecedented media campaign run against Ivanovic by Albanian-language press and television stations. The Appeals Court has made the decision on the appeal against the detention more than four days, or 102 hours, after the expiry of the prescribed deadline, the GI SDP said in a statement."That confirms the belief of the citizens of Kosovska Mitrovica and members of the Citizens' Initiative Serbia, Democracy, Justice that Oliver Ivanovic's arrest was solely politically motivated and aimed at thwarting his candidacy in the Kosovska Mitrovica mayoral elections and his certain victory," the statement said. Ivanovic was recently arrested on suspicion of involvement in an alleged war crime in 1999 and post-war incidents in 2000, including an aggravated murder.
He is the Initiative's candidate for mayor of North Mitrovica in the repeat elections in the town, scheduled for February 23.