Four of the 21 defendants accused of the forced expulsion of more than 800,000 Albanian civilians from Kosovo during the 1998–99 war are reportedly no longer alive. However, this has still not been confirmed by any official document for the purposes of the trial in absentia.
This was made known during the initial hearing by Atdhe Dema, a prosecutor at the Special Prosecution Office of Kosovo, who did not name the defendants in question. He also confirmed that the case against those suspected of war crimes was finalized following three years of investigations.
“After three years of investigation, the Special Prosecution Office submitted to the court the case for judicial proceedings in absentia. Four of them are listed as having died. However, to this day we still have not received official documents issued by the competent institutions,” he said.
In the proceedings being held in absentia, 20 of the court-appointed defense lawyers were in favor of continuing the trial in absentia, with the exception of lawyer Shkumbin Asllani.
He requested that his client be notified of the judicial proceedings.
“Separate from the prosecution’s actions regarding the security of the defendants, I need to verify whether the conditions under Article 303 have been fully met, specifically whether the obligations to effectively notify my client about the judicial proceedings have been fulfilled,” he said.
Meanwhile, the presiding judge, Medie Bytyqi, said that the Court had made all legally required efforts to secure the presence of the accused, but because their presence could not be ensured, it had concluded that the trial in absentia could proceed.
She said the Court was convinced that sufficient efforts had been made in the specific case to secure the defendants.
“The Court has called on the accused to surrender. Until this moment, we have no information from the police regarding their whereabouts. The Court takes into consideration that this concerns the criminal offense of war crimes,” she said.
Meanwhile, because the hearing began one hour later than scheduled, lawyer Albana Zogiani was fined €1,000 for causing the delay.
“In accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Code, the Court issues this ruling: a fine of €1,000 is imposed on lawyer Albana Zogiani due to the delay in the hearing, despite the fact that she had been informed that the hearing would continue at 9:30. She arrived at 10:30,” the judge said.
The 21 defendants are accused by the Special Prosecution Office of having, during the period from January to June 1999, amid the armed conflict and war in Kosovo, exercised authority and effective control over forces operating under their responsibility.
According to the indictment, they were aware, based on the information available to them, operational reports, internal communications and their presence in various areas, and had sufficient knowledge to know that forces under their command or control were carrying out acts that included the destruction of property, the burning of homes and civilian infrastructure, persecution and arbitrary detention of persons on ethnic grounds, including armed attacks on villages and towns inhabited by Albanian civilians with the aim of forcibly displacing them.
According to the indictment, these actions by the defendants ultimately resulted in the organization of forced columns of Albanian civilians with the aim of expelling them from Kosovo toward the state borders in the direction of the Republic of Albania and Macedonia, with approximately 862,979 civilians displaced in total.
According to the indictment, the defendants failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures within their authority and responsibility to prevent these acts from being committed, to stop the perpetrators, or to report the unlawful acts to the relevant authorities.
According to the indictment, the aforementioned defendants are accused of committing the criminal offense of war crimes against the civilian population.
The defendants are: Zlatomir Peshiq, Mladen Cirkoviq, Radomir Markoviq, Dushko Adamoviq, Obrad Stevanoviq, Zhivko Trajkoviq, Goran Radosavljeviq, Bogoljub Janiçeviq, Sllavisha Ivanoviq, Boshko Vukiqeviq, Sreten Popoviq, Nikolla Petroviq, Krsman Jeliq, Ljubisha Stojimiroviq, Bozhidar Deliq, Radojko Stefanoviq, Dragan Zhivanoviq, Millosh Doshan, Ljubinko Cvetiq, Bozhidar Filiq and Millovan Kovaçeviq.
The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a final court decision.
