The Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo (SPRK) has filed an indictment, with a proposal for trial in absentia, against 21 individuals for the criminal offense of “War Crimes Against the Civilian Population.”
The defendants O.S., R.M., K.J., G.R., Ž.T., B.J., M.L., R.M., D.DJ., B.M., D.J., M.Š., D.A., S.V., B.M., Z.S., M.J., G.P., D.N., Č.A., and Z.J. are accused of having killed 42 civilians during an operation carried out by Serbian police forces on 15 January 1999 in the village of Racak, Municipality of Shtime.
According to the indictment, during the period 1998–1999, the defendants, acting in co-perpetration as members of the former Yugoslav Army, the 243rd Mechanized Brigade of the Third Army, known as the Pristina Corps, as well as members of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP), committed acts of inhumane treatment, destruction of property, mass expulsion, and ethnic cleansing of the civilian population.
The indictment states that the defendants initially surrounded the village of Račak from locations known as “Pishat,” “Gështenjat,” and “Çesta.” They then shelled the village from a distance using military weapons, conducted house-to-house searches, and separated men from women and children, forcing the latter to leave the village, while the detained men were executed.
According to investigative findings, it has been established that the defendants used physical violence against civilians, beating them with rifle butts, kicks, wooden sticks, chains, and other blunt objects.
The SPRK further stated that approximately 20,000 civilians from the villages of Račak, Topillë, Petrovë, Krajishtë, Mullapollc, and Dremjak were forcibly expelled from their homes.
Based on the Criminal Procedure Code, the Special Prosecution has proposed to the Basic Court in Pristina that the trial be conducted in absentia, as the defendants remain unavailable to justice authorities.
