Gogic: The Government in Pristina is becoming increasingly extreme in instrumentalizing the police

The arrest of the Assistant Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Igor Popovic, is an indication of how the government in Priština is becoming increasingly extreme in its instrumentalization of the police, says political scientist Ognjen Gogic. He adds that this sends a message to Serbs that even basic legal security does not exist for them.

Gogić believes that Popovic is a victim of political persecution for expressing his opinion.

“During his speech in Orahovac, at the commemoration for the victims, Popović did not insult or threaten the Albanian people in any way. He spoke about how the victims had not yet received justice and expressed a value judgment about the perpetrators of the crimes. Therefore, it is difficult to claim that this was incitement to ethnic hatred; rather, it suggests a criminalization of opinion,” Gogic told RTS.

RTS recalls that Ivan Todosijevic, an official of the Serb List, was tried twice for publicly expressing the opinion that Racak was a fabricated humanitarian catastrophe used as a pretext for the bombing. He was ultimately acquitted by the Supreme Court after spending several years in prison.

The last time a Serbian government official was arrested was in March 2018, when the then-director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and Belgrade’s chief negotiator, Marko Djuric, was arrested in North Mitrovica, taken to Pristina, and then expelled from Kosovo.

Popovic was detained last night at the Brnjak crossing due to his remarks about the KLA during a memorial for Serbian victims in Orahovac.

He has been placed in custody for up to 48 hours, and a detention hearing is scheduled for tomorrow at 4 p.m.