Dren: Officers Suspected of Beating Raskovic Return to Duty

Two Kosovo Police officers, suspended a month ago on suspicion of taking part in the beating of Nenad Raskovic from the village of Dren near Zubin Potok, have returned to duty at the Northern Mitrovica Regional Directorate. The return was confirmed today, September 21, by Erduan Balici, head of the directorate’s Operational Planning and Assessment Unit. The two officers have been reassigned within the North region, and on the same day Srpska Lista asked the relevant institutions for a public explanation of why this happened.

The Kosovo Police Inspectorate recommended the suspension on August 18, following several investigative steps carried out as part of a preliminary inquiry into the incident in Dren, which had taken place a week earlier. At the time, the Inspectorate said the two officers from the Northern Mitrovica Regional Directorate were suspected of the criminal offense of mistreatment while performing official duty.

What happened in Dren

The case goes back to August 11, when Nenad Raskovic of Dren ended up receiving treatment in Northern Mitrovica for injuries to his head, back and chest, following a police operation in his village. From his hospital bed, he leveled serious accusations against the officers. He said members of the Kosovo Police had come to his house several times during the day looking for weapons, that one of them first beat him inside the house, and that they then took him into the woods.

According to his account, he was handcuffed there, tied to a beech tree and beaten again. He said three officers were present, but that only one of them beat him. He added that the officer who assaulted him cocked his pistol, loading it in front of him, during the beating, and that a rag was stuffed in his mouth while they demanded information about weapons and war crimes. Raskovic also said his wife, who is Albanian, was threatened that she would be “sent back to Albania.”

That same evening, the Kosovo Police said it had no information that any of its officers had beaten anyone. After footage showing Raskovic’s injuries was published, it was confirmed that the Kosovo Police Inspectorate was taking over the case. The following day, a representative of the Inspectorate and Kosovo Police officers visited Raskovic at the hospital in Northern Mitrovica and took his statement while he was still in intensive care. That same day, August 12, given the severity of his injuries and his condition, he was transferred by ambulance to the Emergency Center of Serbia’s Clinical Center in Belgrade. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic visited him there, and said afterward that Raskovic’s injuries were worse than initially thought and that he had two broken ribs.

A month long suspension

Six days later, on August 18, the Police Inspectorate recommended suspending the two officers. It is not yet known what the investigation established in the meantime, or whether the month long suspension was a final measure or whether proceedings against the officers are still ongoing. Srpska Lista raised that same question today.

“It is particularly concerning that the public still has no clear information today on what the Kosovo Police Inspectorate’s investigation established, what stage the proceedings are at, and on the basis of which circumstances the decision was made to end the suspension and return the officers to duty,” Srpska Lista said in a statement.

The party said that the decision to return the officers to work, without a full and convincing explanation from the institutions, creates the impression within the Serb community that serious allegations of police violence against Serbs do not get an adequate institutional response and that there are no real consequences for such conduct. It asked the Police Inspectorate, the prosecution and the Kosovo Police to publicly state who decided to return the officers to duty, on what findings, and whether the investigation has been concluded at all. It specifically asked the prosecution to explain whether the proceedings considered or sought pretrial detention or other measures against the suspects, and on what legal and factual grounds that was decided.

A discrepancy in publication dates

Sources differ on when the news of the officers’ return was published. The KoSSev portal, which carried Balici’s confirmation, published the story on September 21 at 12:20 p.m. The daily Danas carries the same story dated September 20 at 2:10 p.m., a day earlier. The reason for the discrepancy is unclear, but both outlets cite an identical confirmation from Erduan Balici that the two officers have returned to duty in the North region.

What remains unresolved

A month after the suspension, neither the Police Inspectorate nor the prosecution has publicly disclosed the outcome of the investigation, nor explained why the decision was made to end it now. Srpska Lista sent its questions immediately after the officers returned to work, so the institutions’ response is the next step in a case that drew attention from Kosovska Mitrovica to Belgrade back in August.