Nezir Mehmetaj appears before tribunal in Serbia, declared innocent

Nezir Mehmetaj, who has been detained in Serbia for a year and a half today, has appeared before the Belgrade Supreme Court in Serbia.

Mehmetaj is accused of participating in war crimes against civilians in the village of Rudica, Cline, in the post office and in the 1999 harvest, was told in court.

He has denied all charges in court, showing what he did during the war.

Nezir Mehmetaj said he was born in Rudica and that he had left Kosovo in 1987, going to Switzerland to work. In Kosovo, he said he had returned after the war in 1999.

I came to Kosovo for the first time in September 1999 through Albania. I bought a car in Durres, took my mother, siblings and went with them to the village of Rudice”, he said in court, adding that his family were refugees in Albania at the time.

Upon arriving in Kosovo, Mehmetaj said he started looking for his father, who had been arrested in 1998, who would be found in a Serbian prison.

I discovered that my father was alive in mid-October when Red Cross representatives came to our house. At the end of November, I returned to Switzerland to my wife and family”, Mehmetaj added.

Mehmetaj is accused of involvement in the killing of seven people and the burning and robbing of houses in Rudice as a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Among other things, he is also accused of having participated in the murder of five members of a Serb family in June 1999.

He was arrested in January 2020 by Serbian authorities at the border crossing between Serbia and Kosovo in Merdare. Since then, he has been in custody.