Lawyer Boricic: Director of the Electrical Engineering School in Susica detained for up to 48 hours

Lawyer Nebojsa Boricic, who represents the director of the Electrical Engineering School in Susica, Boban Petrovic, one of the seven people arrested yesterday in Gracanica, confirmed for Kosovo Online that Petrovic has been placed under police detention for up to 48 hours.

He said Petrovic is being held at the detention center in North Mitrovica.

In Gracanica today, Health Center workers held a protest expressing dissatisfaction over the arrest of directors of educational and health institutions, among whom is the director of that institution, Mirjana Dimitrijevic.

Kosovo’s acting Minister of Internal Affairs Xhelal Svecla said last night that seven people were arrested in Gracanica who, according to him, “attempted to influence the free will of voters through threats, pressure, and blackmail.”

Earlier, the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Pristina announced that the Kosovo Police had detained five people of Serbian nationality in Gracanica on suspicion of committing the criminal offense of “violating the free determination of voters,” following claims by acting Minister for Communities and Returns Nenad Rasic.

The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, stated that the detention of directors of healthcare and educational institutions of the Republic of Serbia from central Kosovo, on the orders of Albin Kurti, was an attempt by Pristina to exert unacceptable pressure and intimidation on Serbian voters in these areas in order, as he said, for Kurti to “push through his favorite Nenad Rasic in the upcoming elections.”

“Rasic has now shown what a servant of Pristina and Albin Kurti he is, that he is utterly shameless, and his disgrace will remain recorded in the annals of dishonor, while he will answer for his misdeeds in accordance with the law together with everyone who helped him in this. The Serbian people will respond to him in the June 7 elections with even greater unity and solidarity and an even stronger Serbian victory, because throughout history the Serbian people have shown that they are strongest when it is most needed,” Petkovic stated.

The arrest was condemned by the Serb List, while SL Presidency member Igor Simic emphasized that the operation was aimed at intimidating Serbs, and that Rasic, by targeting honorable Serbian men and women, “enabled and brought Kurti’s police” into Serbian educational and healthcare institutions.

At a press conference, Simic said that the arrests were carried out with the direct participation of “the favorite of Albin Kurti’s regime, Nenad Rasic,” who targeted Serbs during a government session in Pristina, stating that the arrests had nothing to do with the elections, but rather represented an attempt to attack the Serbian educational and healthcare sectors.

Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dacic also reacted, stating that all persons who, through their actions, contributed to the detention of the five Serbs, directors of Serbian healthcare and educational institutions from central Kosovo, would be prosecuted and sanctioned in accordance with the laws of Serbia.