Fetoshi: Vučić’s stance on Radoičić amounts to political admission of the Banjska attack

Arben Fetoshi, director of the “Octopus” Institute, has reacted to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s statement about Milan Radoičić, describing it as a political admission of the armed attack in Banjska and as evidence of Serbia’s institutional support for its perpetrators.

In a Facebook post, Fetoshi stressed that Vučić’s assertion that Radoičić “is being sought because of Kosovo and Metohija, and not because of crime” leaves, in his view, no room for any other interpretation except as a legitimization of the operation carried out on September 24, 2023, in Banjska.

According to Fetoshi, with this statement the Serbian president portrays the former vice president of the Serb List not as a suspect in criminal offenses, but as a “patriot” who acted in the service of Serbia’s national interests.

He further argues that this statement shows that the arsenal of weapons, ammunition, military equipment, and the armed group involved in the Banjska attack are not presented as part of a crime, but as instruments for achieving a political objective.

Fetoshi adds that this reflects what is known in strategic communication as “delegated responsibility,” when the state does not officially admit authorship of an action, but, according to him, provides institutional protection to its perpetrators.

In his reaction, he also mentions the charges facing Milan Radoičić in Kosovo for attacking the constitutional order, financing terrorism, and money laundering, as well as the arrest warrant for war crimes in Gjakova. He also recalls that Radoičić and Zvonko Veselinović had previously been under investigation in Serbia for smuggling and organized crime.

In the end, the director of the “Octopus” Institute assesses that Vučić’s statement, in his view, confirms the Serbian state’s link to criminal structures within its strategy toward Kosovo and describes this as an ongoing threat to peace and stability in the Western Balkans.