Kosovo Serb arrested at Jarinje administrative crossing

LEPOSAVIC - Serb Miljan Jovanovic, a former Kosovo police officer, has been arrested at the Jarinje administrative crossing, his wife Suzana told Tanjug on Wednesday.

Jovanovic, 44, was arrested by Pristina's police on Tuesday as he and his family were on their way home from Raska, central Serbia.

Suzana Jovanovic said they had used the crossing many times in the past and that the trip to Raska had gone without problems.

"On the way back, we were led aside and they told my husband to come in and said there was some kind of mistake and that there has been an arrest warrant for him for years now due to that mistake. However, we had used the crossing for years and everyone knows it is a mistake and that it is not an actual arrest warrant," Suzana said.

She said she had tried to take a photo of her husband and the police officers but that they had quickly put him into a police vehicle, driving off in an unknown direction.

"Then I asked the police officers who remained at the crossing what that was about, and they told me it is a mistake but that that is the procedure and that they have to take him to a (police) station. They would not tell me where he is, how long he would stay there or when they would release him - absolutely nothing," Suzana said, adding that Miljan had had similar problems in the past, but that his family had believed the issue had been resolved.

"Allegedly, there is an arrest warrant for a man whose name is similar to my husband's name and who no longer lives in Kosovo. They changed it and inserted the name Miljan Jovanovic and all his information. I think that only the mother's name does not match my husband's information. But everyone, including the chief prosecutor in Pristina, is aware of that mistake. My husband has visited that prosecutor two or three times to ask them to correct and remove that because of the unpleasant situations it was putting us in, but it has remained that way for years now - for three or four years," Suzana Jovanovic said.

Together with all other Serb police officers in the north of Kosovo-Metohija, Miljan Jovanovic left the Kosovo police on November 5, 2022.