Kosovo Police: Serbian Gendarmerie suspected of injuring and kidnapping a Serb in Leposavic

2025-11-03 16:20:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Kosovo Police: Serbian Gendarmerie suspected of injuring and kidnapping a Serb

Kosovo Police said that on November 1, they received information that in the Leposaviq area, a Kosovo citizen of Serbian nationality was suspected of being injured and kidnapped within the territory of Kosovo by Serbian gendarmerie.

"The location of the incident where the incident is reported to have occurred is suspected to be located within the territory of the Republic of Kosovo, that is, within the area [as the zero point -0- is called], near the Leposavic area, between the Republic of Kosovo and Serbia, where the Kosovo Police has notified and cooperated with KFOR, as responsible for the border area/belt," the Kosovo Police said in a statement on November 3.

Radio Free Europe has requested more information from NATO's peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, on this case and is awaiting a response.

Police said the victim, identified by the initials MV, was taken by ambulance to the city of Niš in Serbia, according to witnesses. Police said they interviewed eyewitnesses and obtained information from them that “masked individuals had entered the territory of Kosovo, injured and kidnapped the victim, who then took him to the territory of Serbia.”

The case, according to the announcement, has been initiated in the justice bodies in Kosovo. Leposavic is one of four municipalities in northern Kosovo, where the majority of the population is Serb.

This municipality is located on the border between Kosovo and Serbia. The NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, is the third security responder in the country, after the Police and the European Union rule of law mission, EULEX. KFOR, among other things, is responsible for security on the border between Kosovo and Serbia.

This is not the first time that Kosovo authorities have accused the Serbian gendarmerie of entering the territory of the state. In March 2012, two Kosovo police officers were arrested in the Dumnica campaign of Podujeva. After 48 hours they were released. Meanwhile, in 2023, three members of the Kosovo Police were arrested.

According to authorities in Belgrade, they were captured more than a kilometer deep in Serbian territory, while officials in Pristina said they were kidnapped in Kosovo, during a border patrol. Meanwhile, residents of the village of Karaçevë in the Municipality of Kamenica - eastern Kosovo - have continuously reacted since the end of the war to, as they say, the introduction of Serbian gendarmerie into Kosovo territory. /REL