Expulsion of Serbian Police Officers from Kosovo and Metohija Without Legal Basis, They Have No Right to Effective Legal Remedy

Kosovo Police (BETAPHOTO/ARMENIJA ZAJMI BESEVIC/DS)

Assistant director of the Serbian Government's Office for Kosovo and Metohija Igor Popovic has said that the expulsion of members of the Serbian Interior Ministry who live in Kosovo and Metohija has no legal grounds, but also that "they have no right to an effective legal remedy."

In an interview with the latest edition of the NIN weekly, Popovic said that Pristina made a decision on deportation which was carried out immediately, meaning that a legal remedy (an appeal) could be filed, but that the decision on expulsion had already been carried out.

"So you have no right to an effective legal remedy, not a formal but an effective legal remedy. They are stripping people of so-called Kosovo citizenship, expelling them, without having conducted any procedure. That all happens within 24 hours. There can be no talk of law or procedure there," he added.

Popovic believes that Pristina is bothered by any link between the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija and Serbia, and described the arrest and deportation of Serbian police officers as "a horrifying procedure," adding that the officers in question were mostly young people who had families in Kosovo.

"This terror is perfidious, it is truly horrific for the families, the family life of those people is disrupted. They are young people with children, there are some whose wives are in late pregnancy, there are people who have three children and now their wives and children remain here in Kosovo and Metohija, while they are now in central Serbia and cannot return to their homes," said Popovic.