Leading Kosovo Serb politician killed in drive-by shooting

“I am informed that he was shot dead on the spot and efforts to revive him at Mitrovica hospital were unsuccessful,” Ivanovic’s lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic said on Tuesday.
 
According to Serbian media, unknown assailants opened fire on the 64-yera-old politician outside the offices of his party in the Serb-dominated northern part of Mitrovica.
 
Ivanovic was considered a moderate politician who backed dialogue with Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians.
 
In 2016, he was convicted of war crimes during the 1998-99 war. The politician denied the charges and was set to face a retrial.
 
Government reaction
 
The Kosovo government strongly condemned the killing, saying it was a challenge to “the rule of law and efforts to establish the rule of law in the whole of Kosovo territory.”
 
“Violence is unacceptable, without taking into consideration where it comes from and toward whom it is directed,” read the government statement.
 
It also urged all citizens to cooperate and law-enforcement institutions to bring the perpetrators of the incident to justice.