BELGRADE (AFP) - Serbian police issued a search warrant yesterday for a former executive manager of the mobile phone company Mobtel following the withdrawal of its operating license over a deal with a Kosovo businessman that “threatened national security,” a government statement said.

Police are seeking Patrick Harpur, who was Mobtel’s executive manager until last week, after he failed to respond to an investigation into a 2003 agreement between Mobtel and Kosovo company Mobikos, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Harpur, a British citizen, said he “was shocked” by the move and that government claims were “outright lies.”

On Thursday, the Serbian government, a minority shareholder in Mobtel, owned by Serbian businessman Bogoljub Karic, decided to withdraw the company’s operating license on allegations it had signed a “secret” contract with Kosovo’s Mobikos mobile provider.

Mobikos, owned by ethnic Albanian businessman Ekrem Lluka, had therefore “illegally used resources of the state of Serbia, which was against the interest of Serbia,” the government said.

Ministers also blamed the contract for damage to Serbian security.