
The Supreme Court in Prokuple, Serbia, has imposed a one-month detention measure for Sasha Djordjevic from Strpca, a municipality in Kosovo, on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense of espionage.
The news was confirmed to Radio Free Europe by the High Public Prosecutor's Office in Prokuple, a city in southern Serbia located about 50 kilometers from the border point with Kosovo, Merdare.
Several media outlets in Serbia reported on July 28, citing anonymous sources, that ?or?evi? had been arrested at the Merdare border crossing, on suspicion of being an associate of the Albanian State Intelligence Service (SHISH), through the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (AKI). On the same day, he was detained for 30 days, the Prosecutor's Office confirmed to REL. This institution did not provide details regarding the concrete charges against Djordjevic.
"In this case it is not a matter of a broad investigation, but of an individual case," the Serbian judicial authorities said in their response.
Meanwhile, Serbian media have reported that the arrest was carried out in cooperation with members of the Serbian Security and Information Agency (BIA) and the Prokuple Police.
A video of the arrest has also been published, while it is alleged that ?or?evi? is accused of acting against the interests of the Serb community in Kosovo and of submitting confidential information in exchange for payment.
According to these reports, he was in contact with a member of the AKI in Ferizaj, who served as a liaison with the Albanian intelligence service. ?or?evi? is suspected of having collected data on "influential representatives of the Serb community in Kosovo, on the activities of Serbian politicians and well-known Serbian figures in that area, as well as on members of Serbia's security structures – BIA, the Ministry of Interior and the Serbian Army".
Authorities in Serbia and Kosovo have not officially commented on the case.
On the other hand, on July 18, the Basic Court in Pristina set a month's detention for Bojan Jevti?, who had been arrested the day before as part of a joint action of security institutions in Kosovo, on suspicion of espionage for the benefit of Serbian security structures.
Jevti? was a lieutenant in the Kosovo Border Police at the border crossing in White Earth, but after his arrest, the Police Inspectorate recommended his suspension from duty.
In addition to Jevtic, authorities in Kosovo have also arrested several Serbs and Albanians suspected of spying for Serbian intelligence.
At the beginning of June, Aleksandar Vlajic was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that, as a member of the BIA, he engaged in espionage in Kosovo.
Also, since mid-June, Kosovo has expelled at least ten members of Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs, living in Kosovo, on the grounds that they have endangered national security./REL