Pristina arrests Serb for alleged spreading of racial and religious hatred

MERDARE - Pristina authorities arrested a Serb man at the Merdare administrative crossing last night for alleged spreading of racial and religious hatred, the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija said in a statement.

Belgrader Sasa Z, 39, was on his way to the Staro Gracko village near Lipljan, Kosovo-Metohija, where he was to take part in a memorial football tournament commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 1999 Staro Gracko massacre, in which 14 Serb harvesters were killed.

"He was apprehended under the pretext that he was disseminating content on social media networks that the Pristina authorities do not like and criticising the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, for which he has been accused of allegedly spreading racial and religious hatred," the statement said.

Rather than arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of the monstrous crime, for which no one has been called to account to date, Pristina and Albin Kurti have arrested a Serb who has gone to a sports event to pay a tribute to the victims, it said.

While Pristina is glorifying Faton Hajrizi, a terrorist and a criminal who has killed a Serbian policeman on duty, while Pristina officials are openly threatening the Serbs, while the killers of Serbs walk free in Kosovo-Metohija, Pristina is arresting Serbs over footage on social media networks, it said.

"We expect the international community to engage on this case and use the power of its authority and the mandate of its missions to prevent a Serb from becoming another victim of the Pristina regime just because he has stated his position and exercised freedom of speech," the Office said, noting that it had provided free legal assistance to the arrested Serb, who is in 48-hour police detention.