Police in Kosovo arrested Afrim Ismailovic, one of the three direct perpetrators of the 2012 Good Friday massacre. Ismailovic, along with his brother Agim and Halil Demiri killed four Macedonian boys and one man near Skopje on the eve of Good Friday in 2012. The three Islamists were apparently planning to spark a religious war  in Macedonia, at the height of the Syrian civil war.

Afrim Ismailovic and Demiri fled Macedonia immediately after the massacre, while Agim Ismailovic was detained in Skopje. The two fugitives were arrested in Kosovo shortly after the massacre, but Kosovan authorities did not extradite them to Macedonia and after a while allowed them to disappear from public eye. The arrest yesterday was not the result of a deliberate action of the Kosovan police – Ismailovic was detained after a traffic accident and a subsequent identity check showed that he is a fugitive sought in Macedonia to serve out a life sentence. His lawyers said that he is applying for asylum in Kosovo.