Mitrovic: They told me I was innocent and let me go home; here a man is guilty only because he is a Serb

Mirko Mitrovic from the village of Bosce near Kosovska Kamenica, who was arrested yesterday and released this morning, has arrived home, and he says for Kosovo Online that when he was released from detention, where he spent 24 hours, he was told that he was innocent and that he can go home.

"They told me that I was innocent, that I was not guilty of anything, and that I could go home. I knew that I didn't do anything, but here a man is guilty only because he is a Serb," Mirko says after returning home.

As he stated, he had been arrested by the Kosovo police while he had been in the bathroom.

"They came in and said - hands up. And, what could I do? I went with them. They took me to Gjilan and I spent 24 hours there in detention. They didn't mistreat me, they were fair to me, but I was scared and under stress, so I received IV therapy. I told them everything as it is and this morning they told me that I am not guilty of anything and that I can go home," a visibly shaken Mitrovic says.

He states that he had never had any problems with the Serbs or Albanians.

"I live and work here in healthcare. I am also a musician in my spare time. I had good relations with both Serbs and Albanians. We are a Serbian village and the house is full of neighbors who came to welcome me. I don't know what they are doing, as if their goal is to expel all the Serbs that are left here," Mitrovic says.

He adds that he has had no problems for 24 years.

"I passed through the crossing a thousand times, gave my identity card, and never had any problems. And now suddenly they come and take me away because I allegedly destroyed some monument and allegedly because of some war crime," Mitrovic says.

His wife, Sidanka, was at the doctor's office at the time her husband was arrested.

"I came home and I see that Mirko is gone. I ask the neighbors where he is, and in order not to shock me, they told me that he went to plough the soil for the corn. However, he did not come back; I asked them again, and in the end, they told me that he had been arrested. I was shocked. We live here all the time, we have four children. I knew that he had not done anything and that he was innocent," Sidanka says.

Earlier today, lawyer Vasilije Arsic, who was hired by the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, said that the Prosecutor's Office had launched a case against Mitrovic, but that there was currently not enough evidence, and that he had been told that Mitrovic had participated in the criminal act of "destroying a grave".

"I was told that he participated in the criminal act of 'destroying a grave', but that for now, the Prosecution did not have enough evidence that it was a war crime, that is, there was not enough evidence that he had participated in the commission of a war crime," Arsic said.