16 minutes agoSerbia seeks Montenegro extradition of Kosovo crime suspect
Periskopi(8 years ago)
(8 years ago)Serbia's Justice Ministry has told BIRN it would seek neighbouring Montenegro to extradite Predrag Vukovici, a Yugoslav Army veteran accused of involvement in the massacre of 46 ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo in 1999. On the run since 2014, Vukovic, also known as Madzo, was [...]
On the run since 2014, Vukovic, also known as Madzo, was arrested at the port city of Bar in Montenegro on 20 July for illegal fishing. He gave a false name, but security checks determined his true identity.
“The justice ministry will submit a request for extradition within the deadlines set by the Extradition Agreement between Serbia and Montenegro”, the ministry for BIRN said.
The agreement says a wanted person could be released from custody if the extradition request is not submitted within 18 days of arrest.
Vukovic is accused of involvement in an attack on the village of Lubenic in western Kosovo on April 1, 1999, a few days after the start of the 11-week NATO bomber campaign to end a military offensive by forces led by former President Slobodan Milosevic.
Forty-six people died during the attack and 11 others were injured. The bodies of 34 of the victims from Lubeniqi were later found in a mass grave in Batajnica, near the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Four victims are still listed as missing.
In 2014, Serbia's war crimes office indicted three Yugoslav Army veterans -- Vladan Krstovic, Lazar Pavlovic and Milan Ivanovic -- for the massacre and issued arrest warrants against Vukovic and Nenad Lekiqi.
Lubeniki's case is under way before the Belgrade Supreme Court and is one of the largest and longest cases of war crimes in connection with Kosovo being prosecuted by Serbian authorities.
In total, 11 former members of the Yugoslav Army's 177th unit allegedly committed war crimes in the villages of Sik, Pavlan, Zahaq and Lubenic in the spring of 1999.
The group was first sentenced in 2014 to a total of 106 years in prison for killing at least 118 Kosovo Albanian civilians.
The appeals court overturned the verdict in 2015 and sent the case for retrial.
A BIRN documentary, “Unidentified”, revealed the extent of the crimes committed in the four Kosovo villages in 1999, also uncovering the command structure of police units and military involved in the crimes.
Human Rights Watch first documented the crimes in 1999 and identified some of the direct authors who were indicted in Serbia in 2011.
Vukovic is also wanted for other criminal acts, including robbery and drug possession.
