SERBIA SAYS QEKU'S RELEASE EXPECTED

BELGRADE, Oct 23 (Hina) - Serbian justice minister Vladan Batic said on Thursday that the decision by a Slovene court to release Kosovo Protection Corps commander Agim Qeku from custody was expected. #K# Qeku was arrested at Ljubljana airport on Wednesday on an international warrant issued in July 2002 following an order by the district court in the southern Serbian city of Nis. According to a statement from the Serbian justice ministry on Wednesday, Qeku was charged with genocide against Serbs in Kosovo. Batic recalled the same thing happening in the case of arrest of Hashim Thaqi in Hungary this summer. "The problem is that the international community no longer considers Kosovo under our jurisdiction. It's a UN protectorate and under the jurisdiction of the UNMIK (UN mission in Kosovo)," Batic told B92 radio. "International administrators intervened in both cases. There has been no indictment yet from the Hague tribunal, but I hope it will follow soon, and then it won't matter under whose jurisdiction they are. Legal consequences will be clear once the status of Kosovo is finally defined. Until that time there will be a strange status quo. This doesn't depend on anyone's will in Serbia, whether we like it or not," he added. (hina) vm