Kurti: Those accused of Banjska are closer to Vučić

2025-06-30 13:19:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Kurti: Those accused of Banjska are closer to Vu?i?

Kosovo's acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that the suspects in the Banjska attack are very close to Serbian President Aleksandar Vu?i?, even closer, he said, than his close protection. Kurti again demanded that they be handed over to Kosovo authorities.

Kurti made these comments during an event on Monday, after images and photographs were published on social networks showing several people in front of the Serbian Presidency building, during Saturday's protest, who are allegedly accused of the armed attack in Banjska.

Radio Free Europe is verifying their identities.

Kurti said that this proves that his executive was right when he declared the "Civil Protection" and the "Northern Brigade" terrorist organizations in 2023.

"In Banjska, Zve?an, at the end of September, our police sergeant, Afrim Bunjaku, was killed, and we demand the surrender of the chief criminal, the chief terrorist Milan Radoi?i?, with 44 other paramilitaries who participated in the terrorist and criminal attack of September 2023. Now, the same ones are closer than the close protection of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vu?i?," Kurti said during a statement to journalists in Bardhosh, Pristina.

According to him, images captured in front of the Serbian Presidency building show that the attack in Banjska in 2023 was carried out by a "criminal and terrorist" group that was "directed, financed by Belgrade" and, as Kurti said, was not a group of hooligans.

"These are people who were trained in Serbia, take orders from there and have carried out aggression in Kosovo. They must surrender to Kosovo. This shows that we have been right in everything and shows everything about the Belgrade regime, which on the one hand acts this way because it denies the crimes committed during the war in Kosovo, and on the other hand only increases cooperation with the Kremlin, with the despotic president, Vladimir Putin," Kurti said.

The trial of three people in the Banjska case is underway in Kosovo, while the indictment for the armed attack includes 45 people.

During this attack, police officer Afrim Bunjaku was killed. Meanwhile, during the exchange of fire with the group of armed Serbs, three more Serb attackers were killed.

Milan Radoi?i?, former vice-president of the Serbian List, the main Serb party in Kosovo, claimed responsibility for the attack.

For Radoicic and the 41 other defendants in this case, who are at large, prosecutors had requested a trial in absentia, but the Basic Court rejected their request as "unfounded."

Serbia denies Kosovo's accusations that Belgrade is behind the armed attack in Banjska, which Pristina describes as terrorist.

Kosovo has repeatedly asked Serbia to hand over the individuals accused in the Banjska case. The European Union and the United States have also called for them to face justice./ Rel