A Kosovar woman cries as she pays her respects beside the casket of activist and Vetevendosje opposition party leader Astrit Dehari after he 'suspiciously' died in prison, on November 8, 2016 in Pristina. Medical student Dehari died on November 6 at the p
Pristina: Around 1,000 students protested in Kosovo Tuesday against the "suspicious" death of an imprisoned opposition activist, which comes amid heightened political tensions in the small Balkan country.
Medical student Astrit Dehari, 26, died in jail on Saturday in the southeastern city of Prizren, where he had been detained since his arrest in August along with five fellow members of the opposition Self-Determination (Vetevendosje) party.
They were suspected of throwing an explosive device at Kosovo's parliamentary building, one in a series of recent attacks on institutions that have rattled the former Serbian province.
The protesters marched along a central street of the capital Pristina with a picture of Dehari and a huge banner bearing the word "Justice", before paying their respects one by one at Dehari's coffin, placed in front of the National Theatre.
The rally was peaceful despite tensions between the government and opposition over a border demarcation deal with neighbouring Montenegro, and the implementation of an EU-backed deal with Serbia, which is set to grant more autonomy to Kosovo's Serb minority.
The opposition has been demanding for months that the government resign and pave the way for early elections as the only way to calm the situation and solve their main disputes.
Both the government and opposition have also accused each other of being behind a recent spate of mysterious attacks in Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
Police said that Dehari died on his way to hospital after falling into a coma, induced by medication he took.
But the prosecutor's office decided to investigate the death, which it described as "suspicious", while a separate probe has also been launched by Kosovo's ombudsman.
The Self-Determination party blames authorities for Dehari's death, with leading member Albin Kurti saying it came as "a result of strangulation".
The final autopsy report has not yet been published but the prosecutor said that "asphyxia and breathing problems" could be the causes of death.
