The wife of the arrested Lazovic: The person in the photos from Albanian media is not Srdjan, he has never been to Djakovica

The wife of the arrested Srdjan Lazovic from Leposavic, Marija Lazovic, stated that the person in the photographs published by some Albanian-language media is not her husband, emphasizing that he has never been to Djakovica, for which there is evidence, but despite this, he was still arrested.

Lazovic was arrested today on suspicion of committing the crime of war crimes against the civilian population in the region of Djakovica, and his wife told Kosovo Online that this is not the first time he has been stopped, but each time it would be determined that it was a mistake. Until today.

"Today, when we were returning from Raska, we were briefly held at the Jarinje crossing. After 15 minutes, they let us go, telling us that we were free to leave, but then, when we were in the village of Kratina, the police blocked us, told Srdjan to turn off the car, and forcibly pulled him out of the car. The child started screaming, frightened, and he was taken away," Marija recounted.

When she arrived home, where their daughters were, she found the police searching their house.

"They searched everything, took things out of the closets... Of course, they didn't find anything because there was nothing to find... The two little girls were sleeping in the house, they were terrified," Marija added.

After speaking with a lawyer, they went to Mitrovica, where they were told that Srdjan had been released.

"We went to both the northern and southern parts to ask where he was, but no one could tell us. We were only told that he was released immediately after being arrested," she added.

However, this seemed suspicious to her because Srdjan had not contacted them.

"He would have found a way to get to a phone, some way to contact us," she added.

They learned in Pristina that Srdjan had been taken to the war crimes department, and then from the lawyer, they learned he was being charged with war crimes in Djakovica, where he had never been.

"Srdjan served in the military in Prizren in 1995 and 1996, and later was in the village of Vuca near Leposavic, which has nothing to do with Djakovica. They showed him a photo, and he denied being there. We have all the documents showing where Srdjan was at that time. We have his military record, which shows he has no connection to Djakovica," Marija reiterated.

She said that Srdjan works in the police today, the same job he had in 2003/04, for which they also have documents and evidence.

"Before that, he didn't work; he comes from a working-class family, he worked in the forest, and we have documents to prove everything we say," Marija explained.

His innocence is also shown by the fact that, for the past three or four months, he has been stopped at the crossing, but they always said it was a mistake because his mother's name matches the name of the person the police are looking for.

"He was aware that he was not guilty and traveled every day, sometimes with shorter, sometimes with longer delays, but was always released with the excuse that it was a mistake," Marija added.

He wasn't afraid because he knew he was not guilty.

"We are all here, I work here, our children go to school here... He wasn't afraid; he never exposed himself, he has nothing to do with what they are writing about... He also saw the photo that the Albanian media published. It’s some photo from Djakovica, where he has never been... He has never been there, not even during that time period. They accuse him of being a member of the Kosovo police... He never did that," said Srdjan's concerned wife, Marija Lazovic.