Retired Yugoslav Army General Momir Stojanović, the former Chief of Security of the Priština Corps and the first director of Serbia’s Military Security Agency, announced that he has once again been summoned by Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade for questioning over suspicions of alleged war crimes committed in Kosovo, according to KoSSev.
Stojanović claims that several years ago Serbian authorities had already investigated the allegations, which were linked to an international arrest warrant requested by Kosovo’s judiciary, and that the investigation was suspended due to a lack of evidence.
“Seven years later, I recently received a summons—sent to an address where I have not lived for a long time—to appear before the War Crimes Court in Belgrade for questioning on suspicion of committing a war crime,” Stojanović said.
Publishing photographs of the summons and official documents from Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, he stated that Serbian prosecutors had previously conducted a three-year investigation before suspending the proceedings because of insufficient evidence.
According to Stojanović, he later contacted Serbia’s Ministry of Justice and the country’s Interpol office, requesting that the investigation’s outcome be forwarded to Interpol’s General Secretariat in Lyon in an effort to have the international “red notice” removed. He alleges that he never received a response from Serbian authorities.
He now claims he has received another summons from the War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office and suggested that the renewed proceedings may be politically motivated.
“Since the summons was sent to my old address, which, like many other veterans’ addresses, was allegedly provided by someone within the state apparatus to Kosovo’s judiciary, one may conclude that this is a repetition of the entire process at the request of the judiciary of a state we officially do not recognize. Perhaps all of this serves to discipline and intimidate political dissidents,” Stojanović wrote.
Indicted in the Meja War Crimes Case
Stojanović is among 53 individuals named in an indictment filed by Kosovo’s Special Prosecutor’s Office in the Meja war crimes case, one of the largest war crimes prosecutions before Kosovo’s judiciary.
The indictment, filed in late 2023, concerns events that took place in April 1999 in Meja and nearby villages in the municipality of Gjakova. According to prosecutors, 370 Albanian civilians were killed during the operation.
Kosovo prosecutors identify Stojanović, who served as Chief of Security of the Yugoslav Army’s Priština Corps, as one of the principal defendants, alleging that he played a leading role in planning the operation.
The indictment also includes several former senior Serbian and Yugoslav military, police, and security officials.
Although proceedings in absentia began before the Basic Court in Pristina last year, Kosovo’s Court of Appeals overturned the confirmation of the indictment earlier this year and ordered the case to be reconsidered, ruling that the legal requirements for conducting the trial in absentia had not been fully met.
The Appeals Court found that prosecutors had not demonstrated sufficient efforts to notify the defendants of the proceedings, including the publication of summonses and other legally required notification measures.
The issue of properly notifying defendants has become a key procedural matter in several ongoing war crimes cases before Kosovo’s courts.
Meanwhile, Kosovo authorities have recently intensified investigations into alleged wartime crimes, including new arrests and excavation efforts related to suspected mass graves.
