Vasic: Mitrovic remanded in custody for 30 days despite prosecutor’s failure to substantiate reasonable suspicion

The Basic Court in North Mitrovica has ordered 30 days of pre-trial detention for Vidosav Mitrovic of Lesak, who was arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting the attempted murder of Milan Vukasinovic. Attorney Dejan Vasic stated that the prosecution failed to explain the grounds of reasonable suspicion on which the request for detention was based.

A hearing in the case of Vidosav Mitrovic was held today before the Basic Court in North Mitrovica. Mitrovic was arrested on Saturday evening on suspicion of having assisted in the commission of the criminal offense of attempted murder against Milan Vukasinovic of Leposavic.

Attorney Dejan Vasic emphasized that the prosecution did not substantiate the reasonable suspicion underlying its motion for pre-trial detention.

“The Basic Court granted the request of the Basic Prosecution Office in Mitrovica and imposed a measure of judicial detention on Vidosav Mitrovic of Lesak, who is suspected of having acted as an accomplice in the attempted commission of aggravated murder. However, what struck me during this hearing is that the prosecutor did not explain at all the grounds of reasonable suspicion for proposing such a measure. Why the court accepted this request will only become clear once we receive the written decision in the Serbian language,” Vasic said.

Attorney Bojana Srbljak stated that the defense will wait for the official translation of the court ruling, after which an appeal will be filed.

“We will wait for the court to provide us with the translation of the detention order, against which we will lodge an appeal. We hope that the Court of Appeal will uphold the appeal and allow the defendant to defend himself while at liberty,” Srbljak said.

Although it had initially been announced that the hearing would be open to the public, that decision was subsequently changed, and the hearing was ultimately held without public attendance.

Mitrovic was arrested at his home on Saturday evening. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija stated that this unauthorized arrest represents a continuation of Albin Kurti’s violent pre-election campaign against the Serbian community.

Mitrovic had initially been placed in 48-hour detention, despite the fact that, as attorney Dejan Vasic stated yesterday, he fully denied any involvement in the incident and provided an alibi that can be easily verified.