Serbia arrests man suspected of spying for Albanians
Police and the security agency detained a 46-year-old from Istok near Kraljevo. Prosecutors say he passed data on Serbian army and police personnel to an Albanian intelligence service.
The Interior Ministry (MUP) and the Security Information Agency (BIA) arrested a 46-year-old man near Kraljevo on July 30. Identified only as R. T., from Istok in Kosovo, he is charged with espionage under Article 315 of Serbia’s Criminal Code. The arrest was ordered by the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kraljevo.
Two units of the criminal police directorate ran the operation together, the counter-terrorism service and the service for detecting criminal organisations, alongside BIA officers. Footage of the arrest was released, showing the suspect being walked into the Kraljevo police station.
What the Interior Ministry says
According to the ministry’s statement, the man had “for a long period been in a cooperative relationship with the Albanian intelligence service operating in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija”. He is suspected of being engaged in:
“collecting and delivering data on the activities of former and current members of the Serbian Army, the Interior Ministry and other security structures of our country”
That is the wording of a pre-trial suspicion, not of an established fact. Guilt is decided in court.
Why the case points to northern Kosovo
Because the ministry names a consequence. The statement claims that data allegedly passed on by the suspect led Kosovo’s provisional institutions to arrest several people of Serbian ethnicity. It also refers to the persecution of a larger number of Serbs from Zubin Potok and the north of the province.
That is where this case connects to earlier ones. We have already reported on the arrest of two Serbs in Zubin Potok and on Belgrade calling it terror against the Serbian population. In those cases Serbia spoke about pressure from Kosovo police on the ground. This arrest is the first time the ministry places the source of information for such detentions inside the Serbian community itself, with a man who comes from Kosovo.
What happens next
The suspect was held for up to 48 hours. He was then due to be brought, together with a criminal complaint, before the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kraljevo, which is running the case.
How long the alleged cooperation lasted, who exactly received the material and how much of it there was, none of that appears in the statement. It is also unclear whether the case stays in Kraljevo or moves to the Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime, which can happen when charges of this kind are tied to the work of a foreign service. Until a final verdict, the presumption of innocence applies.
