BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s police chief said Friday a Serbian basketball player who fled the United States after a bar brawl that left a fellow student in a coma will not be handed over.

Miladin “Minja” Kovacevic was detained on Tuesday in Belgrade on suspicion that he “inflicted life-threatening bodily harm” on Bryan Steinhauer during the fight at The Rathskeller Pub on State Street in Downtown Binghamton last May.

Kovacevic, who was a member of Binghamton University’s NCAA Division I men’s basketball team for two seasons, jumped bail in June after being charged with assault in the United States. The 22-year-old Steinhauer, a fellow BU student at the time of the attack, only recently emerged from a coma.

Serbia has refused to hand Kovacevic over to the United States for a trial on assault charges, saying its laws do not allow it. The case has strained relations between the two countries.

U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both leading Democrats from New York, praised Serbia for detaining Kovacevic, but also demanded he be handed over to the United States for trial.

Serbia’s Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, in charge of the Balkan country’s police force, said Friday Kovacevic will be tried in Serbia, and not in the United States.

“Our legal system does not allow extradition of Serbia’s citizens,” Dacic said.

It was not immediately clear if or when Kovacevic, 21, would be formally charged in Serbia. An investigative judge ordered him to remain in prison for at least 30 days pending a formal investigation.