"EULEX prosecutor forged statement in Ivanović indictment"

"EULEX prosecutor forged statement in Ivanović indictment"

According to the daily, the indictment states that Belgrade's response "contains indications that the accused may have been a reservist in a special police unit attached to the MUP during the war." The prosecutor cited an official MUP document to back up this claim, specifically, one from the Department for War Crimes, and noted that "it was further indicated that it could not be confirmed, since the MUP has no documentation about it."

The newspaper, however, writes that it had access to two documents sent at the request of EULEX that show "something entirely contrary to the allegations in the indictment" - i.e., that the Serbian Interior Ministry (MUP) informed the EU mission in Kosovo (EULEX) they had no record of Ivanović ever being either an active or a reserve member of its forces.

The MUP letter dated March 4 of this year does state that the Military Security Agency reported there was "operational information that Ivanović, during the combat operations in 1999, served as a reserve member of the PJP of the Serbian MUP in Kosovska Mitrovica," but the document adds that checks carried out established that he was neither an active nor a reserve member of the MUP.

"From this letter it is obvious that the EULEX prosecutor abused unproven operational data as evidence to suggest that Ivanović may have been a member of the reserves, although he (the prosecutor) was also in possession of the information that it was determined this information was accurate," writes Politika.

In another letter, dated July 30, 2014, the ministry made it clear that they found Oliver Ivanović, and other Serbs imprisoned in Kosovo - Nebojša Vujačić, Ilija Vujačić, and Saša Lazović - "were never named or appointed to any office in the Serbian MUP."

As for the second accused Dragoljub Delibašić, it was stated that he was assigned the duties of the head of the Interior Secretariat Department in Kosovska Mitrovica on November 1, 2005, but that this decision was not published in the Official Gazette or any other official publication.

The daily noted in its report that this revelation came amid a scandal that has been shaking EULEX since insider information was revealed alleging that a prosecutor, a judge and a deputy chief prosecutor took bribes and influenced criminal proceedings in a way that led to the dropping of cases against dozens of Kosovo Albanians.