Acting Chief Prosecutor Besim Kelmendi confirmed during an extraordinary press conference that he was summoned by the Special Prosecution of Kosovo to be interviewed as a witness in connection with the Reçak Massacre.
Speaking to journalists, Kelmendi stated that he has never been in the village of Reçak and that he was neither a judge nor an investigator before the year 2000, when he was appointed a judge at the Prishtina District Court.
“I welcome the opportunity to give a statement to the Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo, which reaffirms what I am telling you here today and what every citizen of Kosovo should know. I have never in my life been to the village of Reçak. I have never in my life served as a judge, prosecutor, or investigator before the year 2000, when I was appointed a judge at the District Court of Prishtina for the first time,” Kelmendi stated.
He added that he had the “fortune to work alongside two international judges and an international prosecutor” on a Reçak-related case, in which an individual accused of participating in the killings was found guilty.
“Thanks in part to my contribution, the accused was convicted, and the final verdict served as evidence in the trial against Slobodan Milošević, who at that trial attempted to undermine the credibility of this judgment,” Kelmendi said.
