The former vice-mayor of Skenderaj, Nuredin Lushtaku, was detained on  Monday after two police officers were wounded on Saturday night, one with a firearm and the other with strong tools, at a checkpoint in Skenderaj.

One officer was wounded by gunshot to the leg and the other one by hard tools.

Nuredin Lushtaku and two of his family members are suspected of having attacked two police officers of the police station in Skenderaj who were on official duty during the attack. The Prosecution in Mitrovica said that Nuredin Lushtaku was being charged with criminal assault on an official person.

On Sunday, Lushtaku was stopped by the Police, then he was released in a regular procedure. The day after Lushtaku was handed over to the Police.

The Minister of Interior, Xhelal Sveçla, called the attack intolerable, legally and morally, and an attack on the public order of the republic.

“Policemen … must be unobstructed in the legitimate exercise of their public duties. They are the concrete face of public order. We cannot have both a republic and a lack of order,” Sveçla wrote on Facebook.

The minister said that he expected justice bodies to take measures against such attackers, while emphasizing that as soon as he returns from an official trip to Brussels, he will visit the wounded police officials himself.

On Sunday, Lushtaku’s lawyer, Artan Qerkini, told BIRN that Lushtaku had been released in a regular procedure.

“Our only request is that the investigation be complete in order to clarify the case, and then we will see … with what happened,” said Qerkini.

Lushtaku himself told BIRN that neither he, his sons nor brothers used any weapons against police officials. He denied that they had injured the policemen. According to him, the policemen had attacked each other.

“The policeman injured the policeman. We didn’t even use weapons, I say that with full responsibility. The police report is also pending. I have given the statement, I am ready to state what happened. The police pointed the gun at [my] brothers, and a fight happened,” said Lushtaku.

The police union told justice bodies that the suspected persons should be dealt with according to the law.

“The Kosovo Police Union is concerned about the attack on two police officers in Skenderaj, in which one of them was injured by a firearm and the other by a strong weapon while performing official duties,” they wrote.