Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry confirmed on June 23 2009 that former Kosovo prime minister Agim Ceku had been arrested while trying to enter Bulgaria from Macedonia, on the basis of an Interpol warrant issued at the request of Serbia because Ceku has a 20-year jail sentence issued in Belgrade for war crimes.
 
Ceku was being held in 24-hour detention, the ministry confirmed to Bulgarian news agency Focus.
 
Prosecutors would probably extend the detention period to 72 hours on June 24, the ministry said. The Interpol warrant would be studied before further action was decided.

Solomon Passi, head of Parliament's foreign policy committee and a former foreign minister and founder of the country's pro-Western Atlantic Club, said that he had invited Ceku to Bulgaria, Focus said.

Passi said that the two had regular contact and were working together on Kosovo's Euro-Atlantic integration and on the founding of an Atlantic Club in Kosovo.

Deputy Foreign Minister Milen Keremedchiev said that the Foreign Ministry had no record of an official invitation being given to Ceku to visit Bulgaria.

Bulgarian news agency BTA quoted Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev as saying on June 24 that the prosecuting magistracy would make a decision within 72 hours about whether to recommend allowing the extradition of Ceku, and this would be forwarded to the Supreme Judicial Council.

Until then Ceku would remain on remand in Kyustendil, south-western Bulgaria.

Velchev said that the Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office was awaiting documentation from Interpol to arrive, as Ceku was arrested on an Interpol red notice.

Based on the documents, the prosecuting magistracy will then decide whether to approach the Kyustendil District Court about Ceku being extradited, or release him.

Responding to comments by foreign politicians that Ceku would be released or extradited on Wednesday, Velchev said that his office had not discussed the matter with anyone.

Ceku is a former chief of the Kosovo Liberation Army and was convicted by a Serbian court for war crimes during the 1998/99 war in Kosovo.
 
Kosovo and Ceku regard the arrest as invalid. There have been similar incidents previously. In 2006 he was arrested in Slovenia and Hungary, respectively, but both countries declined to hand him over to Serbia. He was also expelled from Colombia.
 
In May 2009, Ceku told journalists in the Kosovo capital Pristina that Interpol should withdraw the warrant, AFP said.
 
Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, does not consider Serbia to have jurisdiction over Kosovo and its citizens.