Kosovo authorities have expelled two members of Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MPB) from the country hours after arresting them on Saturday on suspicion of violating national security, their lawyers confirmed to Radio Free Europe on Sunday.
Nikola Vujević and Mladen Milojević were deported on Saturday evening and both have been banned from entering Kosovo for five years, said their lawyers Bogdan Lazić and Srgjan Mitrović, respectively.
Vujević and Milojević were among three members and a retired member of the Serbian MUP who were arrested in Kosovo on Saturday.
Kosovo authorities have only confirmed Vujević's arrest and the intention to deport him, after Kosovo's acting Interior Minister, Xhelal Sveçla, stripped him of his Kosovar citizenship on Saturday, saying he was recruited by Serbia's intelligence and security institutions.
Svecla said on Saturday that Vujovic "poses a danger to our national security as a member of the Serbian police forces."
Milojevic serves as a Serbian police officer in Raška and comes from Leposavic, a Serb-majority municipality in northern Kosovo.
Vujević, who comes from Zubin Potok, also in northern Kosovo, has announced a lawsuit against the Kosovo authorities' decision to revoke his citizenship, his lawyer said.
According to the Law on Citizenship in Kosovo, a person loses citizenship if he/she engages in activities that endanger the national security of Kosovo; when he/she is intentionally a member of an organization that aims to destroy or damage the constitutional order of Kosovo; when he/she is a member of the intelligence service or police forces of another state, without the consent of local authorities and without prior international agreement.
Sveçla said that Serbia is making "systematic efforts" to internally destabilize Kosovo, by employing Kosovo citizens within its security and intelligence institutions, "an act in violation of our laws and a violation of our national security."
The Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia condemned the decision of the Kosovo authorities to arrest members and former members of the Ministry of Interior on Saturday.
She said that Kosovo authorities had "no legal reason" for their arrest and that this "is politically motivated revenge against the Serbian people."
Their arrest came a week after Serbia arrested a former member of the Kosovo Police Special Unit on June 7 at the border crossing between Hungary and Serbia, while he was returning from Austria to Kosovo by bus with his family.
Arbnor Spahiu is suspected by Serbian authorities of “grave murder in Banjska” – where a group of armed Serbs attacked the Kosovo Police in September 2023, killing Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku – said the lawyer hired by Spahiu’s family, Arianit Koci, in an interview with Radio Free Europe on Friday.
Koci said that the defense has already submitted an appeal against the decision for the one-month detention. REL
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