The EU welcomes the indictment for the attack in Banjska: Those responsible will face consequences

The European Union (EU) has welcomed the decision of the Kosovo Prosecutor's Office to indict several dozen suspects for organizing and carrying out the armed attack on the Kosovo Police in the village of Banjska in the north of the country last year, the spokesman said on Thursday. block, Peter Stano.

The Special Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo announced on Wednesday that it has indicted 45 people - among them Millan Radoicic - for the armed attack in Banjska.

Stano said that those responsible for the September 24 attack in Banjska, Zveçan, where a Kosovar policeman was killed, will face consequences after the judiciary in Kosovo announces the decision against them.

"The EU has repeatedly called on Serbia to bring all those involved in this brutal attack to justice. The filing of the indictment means that the court proceedings will now begin and we expect to see the end of this process", said Stano.

Asked if Banjska was the topic of the meeting that the EU ambassador in Belgrade had with the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, on Thursday, Stano replied that the EU has repeatedly conveyed the same message to Serbia, that it should cooperate fully investigating to bring those responsible for this attack to justice.

"We don't need special meetings to convey the positions of the EU. They are known and have been repeated several times. We expect Serbia to cooperate in the investigation of this case and, also, to hold responsible the persons involved. We have conveyed this to the authorities of Serbia several times", he added.

According to diplomatic sources within the EU, there are countries that have criticized that Serbia has not done anything to bring those responsible for the attack in Banjska to justice, even though they are located on the territory of Serbia.

They requested that this be taken into account in the case of decisions to advance with the process of membership negotiations between Serbia and the European Union.

In Banjska t Zveçani - the northern part of Kosovo - an armed group of Serbs attacked the Kosovo police on September 24 last year, killing Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku. In the armed clashes that followed, three more Serb attackers were killed.

Five days after the event, on September 29, responsibility for the attack was taken by Radoicic, a former politician and businessman from the north of Kosovo, who is believed to be in Serbia.

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said on Thursday in Pristina that the indictment could have been filed earlier, but "better late than never".

He repeated the request of the Kosovar authorities for Serbia to cooperate and hand over Radoicic to them, because "he committed the crime in Kosovo, and Banjska is in Zveçan of Kosovo".

At the end of last year, at the request of the Ministry of Interior of Kosovo, the international police organization, INTERPOL, issued an arrest warrant for Radoicic.

After the announcement of the indictment, Radio Television of Serbia quoted the chief prosecutor of the High Public Prosecution in Belgrade, Nenad Stefanović, as saying that "from the point of view of the legal order of the Republic of Serbia, the indictment of 'temporary institutions in Pristina' against Milan Radoicic and others have no importance"./REL