Three Kosovar police officers arrived in Kosovo after a court in the central Serbian city of Kraljevo on June 26 ordered their release following their detention by Serbian authorities earlier this month along the border between Serbia and Kosovo in an escalation of already simmering tensions between the two neighbors.
The three -- Beqir Sefa, Mustafa Shemi, and Rifat Zeka -- had been charged with unauthorized production, possession, carrying, and trafficking of weapons and explosive substances.
The three men went missing under unclear circumstances on June 14. Kosovo said they were on a regular patrol aimed at preventing cross-border smuggling.
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Kosovar Police Officers Released After Detention In Serbia
Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla has accused Serbia of "entering the territory of Kosovo and kidnapping" the three policemen.
Belgrade has said the officers were arrested "deep inside" Serbian territory.
KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, has said it was unclear where the police officers were at the time of their arrest.
The United States and the European Union had urged Serbia to immediately release the three policemen.
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Twitter thanked the United States for helping secure the policemen's release "after the act of aggression that Serbia did in Kosovo," while Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that even though the men have been returned to their families, "this abduction consists of a serious human rights violation & must be reprimanded."
The European Union welcomed the release of the officers and urged Kosovo and Serbia to take further steps to defuse tensions, including holding new local elections in northern Kosovo.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that Brussels would take "political and financial" measures against either government if it did not move toward normalizing relations.
In its statement announcing the release of the men, the High Court in Kraljevo said that while the indictment of the three has been confirmed, the panel has "issued a decision terminating the defendants' detention."
The three later on June 26 crossed the border into Kosovo and then continued their journey to the capital, Pristina, in a police vehicle.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
Belgrade does not recognize the independence of its former province, and tensions with Pristina have crept back up.
Late last month, violent clashes between KFOR peacekeepers and protesting Serbs in northern Kosovo injured dozens after Pristina ignored Western pleas to avoid escalation and instead tried to forcibly seat ethnic Albanian mayors after boycotted elections in the mostly Serb north.