U.S. Won't give up resolving by Bytyqi Brothers Case

Through a media communique, this embassy said on July 8th it was the 21st anniversary of the murder of the Bytyqi brothers star, Agron and Mehmet.

“If 21 years have passed, there is little progress towards the efficient and detailed investigation into the murder of these American citizens”, the communique says.

Their murder occurred after the detention and handover of special units of Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1999

Their troops were found two years later in Petrovo Selo in eastern Serbia, at a base under entity control under the command of the Radovljevic Stone.

The victim's “hands were tied behind the back, while in each of them's head wounds caused by bullets fired in the back of the head”, the US Embassy media communique in Belgrade said.

Also, in the communiqué it has been said that the United States will not forget the murder of the Bytyqi brothers and that they will not give up the fight for justice.

“E reiterates calling to authorities in Serbia, which for years promises assistance regarding the case, that the case will eventually be resolved. Justice for the Bytyqi brothers' family is still further one of our bilateral relations priorities with Serbia”, the US Embassy in Belgrade has said.

The star, Agron and Mehmet Bytyci were former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, respectively, of the Atlantic Battalion, composed of Albanians living in the United States, who joined the war in Kosovo.

In July 1999 they were arrested under circumstances unknown to Serb forces near the border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia in Merdara.

A Prokuples city court in Serbia had sentenced them to 15 days' removal of freedom on charges of, as it has been said, the illegal crossing of the former Yugoslavia's border.

They were released from prison after being convicted and then killed. Their bodies were found in a mass cemetery near Petrovo Selo in eastern Serbia in 2001.

Two police officers accused of helping liquidate the Bytyci brothers, Sreten Popovovic and Milos Stojanovic have been acquitted at the Supreme Court's decision in Belgrade for war crimes.

The court has said there is no evidence of their involvement in the killings committed in July 1999.

In July 2018, the United States Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a resolution urging Serbia to bring to justice the killers of three Bytyci brothers, American citizens, descended from Kosovo.

It is unacceptable that no person has been found guilty of executing the Bytyci brothers or any other crime related to their deaths and that no one faces charges for this crime”, the US resolution says.