Igor Simic summoned to Special Prosecution in Pristina
The Serb List vice president says he and several other officials received a summons from the terrorism investigation department over four criminal offenses, and that he will comply.
Serb List vice president Igor Simic said on Tuesday, September 29, that he and several other representatives of the party have received a summons from the Special Prosecution in Pristina, its terrorism investigation department. Simic made the announcement in a video on Instagram and said he will answer the summons.
What are the charges, according to Simic?
According to Simic, the prosecution accuses them of four criminal offenses:
- conspiracy to attack the constitutional order
- endangering persons under international protection
- assaulting an official
- taking part in a crowd committing a criminal offense, and hooliganism
Simic maintains that they committed none of these offenses. His address did not name the other officials who were summoned, and no hearing date was given. Nothing in what has been reported shows which event the suspicions relate to. The Pristina prosecution has not published a response to Simic’s claims.
”Some new summonses aimed at pressure”
Simic presented the summons as a consequence of speaking publicly about the position of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. He said:
“Every time we raise our voice about the suffering of the Serb people, about violations of the rights of individual and collective Serbs living in this area, some new summonses arrive whose aim is to put pressure not only on us individually, but on the entire Serb people, and in that way to try to keep Serbs from speaking about what is happening, and to have us, as the political representatives of the Serb people, be intimidated.”
He rejected the accusations with a line that touched on motive: “Whatever they charge us with, they know well that we did not do it, but they want to scare us.” As reported by B92, he added that the prosecution does not react when, as he claims, the authorities in Pristina break regulations, do not convene parliamentary sessions and arrest Serbs without reason. That assessment is Simic’s own, and no source confirms it.
Going to the hearing
Simic said that, as on several previous occasions, he will answer the Special Prosecution’s summons, explaining that political representatives must stand with their people. In his words, Serbs do not have the luxury of ignoring prosecution summonses, as the political representatives of Albanians do. He explained his reason for going this way:
“We have nothing to hide, we know we have not committed any criminal offense, but on the other hand, I am going to the hearing because I know someone has to say to their face what the truth is, and that is that the Serb people are suffering in this area and want to live in peace.”
Simic has complied with summonses from the same prosecution before, as he mentioned himself. What remains unknown is the date of the hearing and the names of all the Serb List officials who were summoned.
