BELGRADE, June 16 (Reuters) – Serbian justice on Friday ordered the detention and the opening of an investigation into three Kosovar police officers arrested earlier this week by Serbian forces in a border area and in disputed circumstances.
Belgrade and Pristina located the arrest of the three policemen in different places and accuse each other of having crossed the border illegally.
This incident is the latest in a series that has led to rising tensions between the two countries.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kraljevo, a city in southwestern Serbia, said it had charged the three officers with unauthorized production, possession, carrying and trafficking of weapons and explosive substances, and a judge had ordered their detention .
Kosovo tightened controls along its border with Serbia on Thursday following the arrest of the three policemen and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti demanded their immediate release. (Report Aleksandar Vasovic; Blandine Hénault for the French version, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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