Missing journalist Stefan Cvetkovic. Photo: Medija centar

Serbian police on Thursday said they had started a search for Stefan Cvetkovic, a journalist covering the murder of the Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic, after his abandoned car was found in his hometown of Bela Crkva in northern Serbia.

The police said they found the car Cvetkovic was using parked with the doors open and the lights still on.

“Police have started a search for Stefan Cvetkovic who is being sought intensively,” the Serbian Interior Ministry said.

The ministry said that it had deployed several dozen members of the special Gendarmerie police unit along with divers, search dogs, and two helicopters to help find Cvetkovic.

Cvetkovic told a press conference in February that Ivanovic’s assassination was paid for with 40,000 euros. He also showed photos of persons allegedly involved in the murder.

Ivanovic was killed in a drive-by shooting in North Mitrovica, in Kosovo, in January. A fierce champion of the Serbian minority in Kosovo, he had also, however, clashed with Serbia’s ruling party – resulting in conflicting theories about who was behind his unsolved murder.

Cvetkovic has complained over the years of receiving threats from politicians and oligarchs, related to his work, Beta news agency reported.

In March 2017, he was sentenced to two years and three months in jail, after several ruling Progressive Party officials sued him for defamation.

The High Court in the Serbian town of Pancevo annulled the rulings in April this year.

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