EULEX takes over north Kosovo investigations

According to EULEX spokesperson Irina Gudeljevic, the grenade attack on a Serb protest in which one person died and 11 were injured, and the armed attack on Kosovo assembly member Petar Miletic, are now under EULEX's jurisdiction.

Kosovo police, KPS, regional spokesperson Besim Hoti told the Beta news agency that the investigations will be taken to a new level now.

"We received information from the prosecution yesterday that both of the cases will be taken over by EULEX and the directorate for organize crime in Pristina," Hoti said.

EULEX police arrested in Pristina on Tuesday a person suspected of committing war crimes in the municipality of Lipljan, central Kosovo, in 1999.

EULEX spokeswoman Karin Limdal said that he was arrested in relation to an ongoing investigation into the Blaca case.

The police are currently searching his home on a warrant issued by an EULEX pre-trial judge.

The investigation is being conducted by EULEX police under the supervision of the Kosovo Special Prosecutor's Office (STRK), said the EU mission in Kosovo.

The Blaca investigation was launched after ethnic Kosovo Albanian Nazim Blaca publicly stated he was a member of an execution squad within the "secret Kosovo intelligence service".

According to his statement, after the war they carried out political executions commissioned by top officials of Hashim Taci's Democratic Party of Kosovo.

Following his statement, Blaca has been held in house arrest.

EULEX made another arrest yesterday, which they said came for tax evasion.

The suspect was identified in media reports as a political advisor in the Pristina government's health ministry, Ilir Tolaj.

An EULEX spokeswoman however released a statement confirming the arrest without disclosing Tolaj's identity.