Government official accuses Kosovo authorities of going to any length to persecute Serbs

Prime Minister of unrecognized Kosovo Albin Kurti is ready to do whatever it takes in his objective to oppress the Serbs, the head of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, opined on Wednesday.

"By the inhumane treatment and denial of basic rights to Dejan Pantic, Kurti is also violating his own laws, which proclaim that a prisoner should have the right to medical care, contact with his family and a lawyer," Petkovic wrote on Twitter. "It is clear that Kurti is ready to go to any length, even trample his own rules, when he wants to make a strike at the Serbs," he blogged.

Dejan Pantic is a former Serb police officer who resigned in November, along with other Serbian officers, from Kosovo’s interior ministry. He was detained by Kosovo police in Kosovska Mitrovica on December 10 on trumped-up charges, triggering another spiral of tensions in the region. The Prosecutor's Office of unrecognized Kosovo subsequently decided to extend his arrest until at least January 9, 2023.

His son Predrag Pantic said earlier that Kosovo authorities prevented him from visiting the father and did not allow the former police officer to meet with a lawyer and receive medicine necessary to treat his heart disease. He stressed that the family had no information whatsoever about the whereabouts of Dejan Panti and his condition.