Kosovo indicts 45 on terrorism charges over 2023 attack

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo announced the indictment of 45 suspects on terrorism charges on Wednesday, almost a year after ethnic Serb gunmen stormed a north Kosovo village and battled police in a shootout that left four people dead including a police officer.

The incident, the worst violence in the restive area since the western Balkan republic declared independence from Serbia in 2008, aggravated tensions between Pristina and Belgrade.

"There is strong evidence that all 45 suspects have committed criminal offences related with terrorism, criminal offences against constitutional order, financing of terrorism and money laundering,” Blerim Isufaj, chief prosecutor of the Special Prosecution of Kosovo, told a press conference.

On Sept. 24, 2023, police said about 80 gunmen entered Kosovo from Serbia in armoured vehicles and barricaded themselves in a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Banjska village in Kosovo's north, an area mainly inhabited by ethnic Serbs.

Three gunmen and a Kosovar police officer were killed in the shootout, while the rest of the assailants fled to Serbia on foot through hills, leaving behind cars loaded with weapons, ammunition and explosives.

The prosecution said that Milan Radoicic, the leader of the group and a former top Kosovo Serb politician, is among the accused. Radoicic, who lives in Serbia, has publicly admitted taking part in the gunbattle.

All the suspects, some of whom are Kosovo citizens, are believed to be in Serbia. It is unlikely they will be handed to Kosovo authorities, because Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo's independence and still considers it part of its own territory.

Kosovo blames Serbia for being behind the shootout. Belgrade denies this.

Early this year the global police agency Interpol issued international arrest warrants for 19 suspects including Radoicic.

Some 50,000 Serbs who live in north Kosovo do not recognise Pristina's institutions and see Belgrade as their capital. They have often clashed with Kosovo police and international peacekeepers.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci, Editing by William Maclean)