Pantovic: We have reached a point where you can't say anything that the public here dislikes

We have unfortunately reached a point where you can’t say anything that the local public doesn’t like, and where you have to weigh every word you say on any topic, especially on issues like this, where someone might interpret it as disturbing interethnic relations or inciting hatred, lawyer Ljubomir Pantovic said in a statement to Kosovo Online. Pantovic is one of the defense attorneys for Igor Popovic, Assistant Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija of the Serbian Government, who was yesterday ordered into 30 days of detention by a preliminary procedure judge of the Basic Court in Pristina.

The detention was requested by the Special Prosecutor’s Office, which claims that Popovic incited division and intolerance with a speech he gave on Friday in Velika Hoca, following a memorial service for Serbs killed in the Orahovac region.

“The situation is extremely, extremely difficult for our people here. You really have to be extremely careful and weigh every word you say in public,” Pantovic emphasized.

Before the preliminary procedure judge, the defense invoked a 2023 ruling by the Supreme Court of Kosovo, which acquitted Ivan Todosijevic, former head of the Provisional Authority of Zvecan and former Minister of Administration and Local Government, of the same criminal offense now being attributed to Popovic.

“The Supreme Court ruled that Ivan Todosijevic had expressed his personal opinion, an opinion that doesn’t have to be factually correct or accurate, nor aligned with the views of the majority of Kosovo’s population, and that such an opinion falls under the protection of freedom of speech, as defined by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights,” Pantovic recalled.