The prosecution requests a month's detention for the suspect in the attack on KFOR members.

2025-08-25 13:43:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The prosecution requests a month's detention for the suspect in the attack

The Kosovo Special Prosecution Office on Monday asked the Basic Court in Pristina to order a one-month detention for a man suspected of participating in the 2023 attack against members of KFOR and Kosovo Police in Zvecan.

The suspect, identified only by the initials Lj.M., was arrested on Sunday in Zvecan, a Serb-majority municipality in northern Kosovo.

The prosecution said on Monday that "all legal conditions have been met" for the suspect to be held in custody for 30 days.

He is suspected of having committed four criminal offenses: conspiracy to commit unconstitutional activities, endangering persons under international protection, participating in a crowd committing a criminal offense, and hooliganism and assault on an official.

"The defendant Lj.M. is suspected of having attacked members of KFOR, Kosovo Police and journalists who reported on the event with stones, Molotov cocktails and weapons on 29.05.2023, in front of the Zveçan municipality building, in complicity with other suspects," the Prosecution's announcement states.

The prosecution added that during the investigation and search of the suspect's home, it found material evidence, such as a telephone, various military uniforms, two USBs, and a T-shirt with nationalist motifs, "which confirm the defendant's incriminating actions on the critical day."

On May 29, 2023, 93 KFOR members were injured – some of them seriously – after clashes with Serbian protesters. There were also injuries on the protestors' side.

The violence in Zvecan erupted after local Serbs opposed the entry of new Albanian mayors into municipal buildings in Zvecan, Leposavi? and Zubin Potok – municipalities inhabited by a Serb majority in northern Kosovo, following local elections held earlier that year, which were boycotted by Serbs.

So far, several people have been sentenced to prison after plea agreements with the prosecution in connection with the violence in Zvecan, while dozens of others have been arrested.

Kosovo has blamed Serbia for the violence in Zvecan, saying that behind the violence were "criminal groups close to the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vu?i?."

But Belgrade has rejected this accusation, saying that the Kosovo government was aiming to push the Serbs "towards a new conflict with NATO."

NATO has consistently called for the perpetrators of violence to be held accountable./REL