The Special Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo announced on Thursday that it has filed an indictment against two suspects for war crimes against the civilian population during the war in Kosovo in 1998-99.
The prosecutor charges the suspects, identified by the initials S.S. and M.S., with a series of offenses including murder, physical and psychological abuse, and theft of movable property from the civilian population during the last war in Kosovo.
“There is well-founded suspicion that during the period from 1998 to 1999, intentionally and in complicity, they committed criminal acts, war crimes against the civilian population,” said the prosecutor in a media statement.
The prosecutor did not provide further details regarding this case or the two suspects. This is the fourth indictment filed in the last two months for war crimes in Kosovo.
Last December, the Special Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo stated that it had filed a total of 33 indictments, involving 89 individuals, for war crimes in Kosovo.
Since the end of the last war in Kosovo, approximately 70 individuals have been convicted of war crimes before local and international institutions.
From 2000 to 2008, war crimes in Kosovo were investigated by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), while from 2008 onwards, by the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX).
In 2018, this mission handed over cases to the Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo and to local courts. During the last war in Kosovo in 1998-99, over 13,000 civilians were killed, and thousands more went missing.
More than 1,600 individuals remain unaccounted for—most of them being Albanians.
