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Oliver Ivanovic. Photo: Media Centre Belgrade

Oliver Ivanovic, who was shot dead in front of his office in Mitrovica on Tuesday, had several times said he and his family had received threats, and had asked Kosovo, Serbia and others for help – but without any result.

“They did all they could to me, except shoot me – but even that is not excluded,” Ivanovic said in November on N1 regional television.

Ivanovic’s car was set on fire on July 28, a few months before the local elections in Kosovo.

Ivanovic was the head of a civil initiative called Serbia, Democracy, Justice, and acted as an opponent to the main Kosovo Serb party, Srpska Lista, which is now part of the Kosovo government.

Ivanovic told N1 that the aim of the threats was to scare the people around him.

According to a report from Ivanovic’s press conference, held after the 2017 incident, he said there was one thing about him that someone didn’t like. “My politics,” he underlined.

After the incident, he told Kosovo’s RTK website he had informed the leadership of Serbia, Kosovo, the international community, the EU rule of law mission, EULEX, prosecutors, and the peacekeeping force KFOR about the threats and pressures on him.

This was not first time Ivanovic’s car was set on fire; a similar incident happened in 2005, when a bomb was planted under his car, which was parked in front of the building he lived in.

“I do not expect anything from the police, because so far nothing has been done in similar situations. Either it is a matter of incompetence, which I doubt, or a lack of courage to enter into conflict with the criminals and solve such cases,” he told Beta news agency in July.

In September 2013, ahead of the then local elections, an unknown man entered Ivanovic’s apartment and attacked his wife, Serbian media reported. Ivanovic was then a candidate for the post of mayor of Mitrovica.

The same year, someone started a fire in his party headquarters. Once again Ivanovic told the media that he was sure the motive for the fire was his politics.

A spokesperson for Ivanovic’s party, Ksenija Bozovic, told BIRN: “Nobody can say they didn’t know.”

“What else should have happened to him in order for someone to react?” she asked.

Bozovic added that the perpetrators were not found in any of the cases.

“He was scared for his life, for the safety of his family, and he informed everyone about it – Serbia, Kosovo, the international community. They all knew,” she pointed out.

Serbian and Kosovo police did not reply to BIRN’s questions about the threats that Ivanovic had reported earlier.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday that the Serbian security services had no knowledge of the existence of direct threats to Ivanovic.

Ivanovic was was shot dead early on Tuesday morning in front of his office, and died soon after in the hospital. His murder has been widely condemned by EU, Serbian and Kosovo officials.