Kosovo Serb politician and businessman Milan Radoicic has accepted responsibility for the events in Banjska and denies any involvement of the Serbian authorities, his lawyer said on Friday.

Lawyer Goran Petronijevic read out a statement which he said was Radoicic’s saying that he was in the Banjska area on September 24. “This is to inform the public that I together with my compatriots came to the north of Kosovo and Metohija in the Banjska area on September 24,” the statement said.

It added that he went back to Kosovo to “encourage the people in their resistance to Albin Kurti’s regime”.

Radoicic’s statement said that he had no help from the authorities in Belgrade nor did he inform them of his intentions because their views have differed for some time.