Kosovo Serbs plead not guilty over Banjska attack

The only three suspects arrested so far in Kosovo over a Serb armed group’s deadly attack on police in the northern village of Banjska in September 2023 have pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges.

Xhorxhina Bami, October 9, 2024

From left to right: Blagoje Spasojevic, Vladimir Tolic and Dusan Maksimovic at the Pristina Basic Court on October 9, 2024. Photo: BIRN

Three Kosovo Serbs, Blagoje Spasojevic, Vladimir Tolic and Dusan Maksimovic, the only people arrested so far over the deadly September 2023 attack that killed a police officer in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo, confessed in Pristina Basic pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday.

Spasojevic and Tolic, who were arrested at the scene, did not enter pleas, but Judge Arben Hoti said the court “considers the defendants not guilty.” Maksimovic, who was arrested the following day, pleaded not guilty himself.

The three are accused of terrorism and endangering the country’s constitutional order.

The indictment, seen by BIRN, alleges that the three detainees, along with 41 other defendants, began the attack by first blocking the main bridge in the village of Banjska with trucks.

Prosecutor Naim Abazi told the court that most of the group “entered the Republic of Kosovo in an organized manner from the Republic of Serbia via mountain roads with dozens of cars filled with weapons.”

He added that the defendants then “hid and took up their positions” and attacked the Kosovo Police officers immediately upon their arrival at the scene as they checked the trucks, initially believing that smugglers had brought them there.

According to the indictment, surveillance camera footage shows a group of heavily armed people approaching the bridge after arriving in two Mercedes cars, both of which, according to prosecutors, belonged to Kosovo Serb leader Milan Radoicic. Shortly afterwards, police reinforcements arrived in two vehicles.

In a subsequent explosion, police officer Afrim Bunjaku was killed and his colleague Alban Rashiti was injured. The autopsy report identified the deadly weapon as a Yugoslavian-made MRUD anti-personnel mine.

Abazi told the court that the defendants’ overall plan was to “separate” Kosovo’s four Serb-majority northern municipalities “in order to connect them to the Republic of Serbia.”

On September 25, Judge Arben Hoti separated the case against Spasojevic, Tolic and Maksimovic from that against Radoicic and the 40 other defendants, as well as a company owned by one of the defendants.

On September 25, the Basic Court asked Kosovo’s Supreme Court to decide whether Radoicic and 41 others can be tried in absentia.

Judge Hoti said the court would ask whether the trial could be held in absentia even if the defendants were not present at the first hearing.

Radoicic took sole responsibility for leading and organizing the Banjska attack. He is currently in Serbia and has made no further public comment on the charges.

Radoicic, along with his business partner Radule Stevic and his company RAD DOO, are also accused of money laundering.

Radoicic is also accused of financing terrorism. According to the indictment, Radoicic financed the criminal activities of a “structured terrorist group” since 2017. This included the purchase of heavy weapons and military uniforms.

The indictment also alleges that Radoicic called on local Serbs to oppose any move by the Kosovo authorities that Belgrade deemed undesirable, setting up roadblocks and barricades.

Serbian prosecutors are also investigating him for organizing an armed group, illegally accumulating a large cache of weapons that he transported to Kosovo, and “serious crimes against general security.”

In October last year, a Belgrade court refused to arrest Radoicic, but ordered him not to leave the country and confiscated his passport.