Prosecution File: Kostic allegedly led the action to massacre the Wolfani family, two others for murder and torture of Albanians

Dragan Milovic, Ilija Elezovic and Zoran Kostic are the three Serbs suspected of war crimes for which the Constitutional Court in Pristina has on Thursday imposed a month-long detention measure.

Under the request for the arrest of the Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo (PSRK), three Serbs are suspected of committing war crimes against the civilian population in the area of Vushtrri and the Ujcan family massacre during 1999, reports the “Justice Vocation”.

In the SPRK file, it is said on February 24th 1999, defendant Ilia Elezovic moving on the local route from Vushtrria to the village of Nadakovc, to the bridge of magistrates along with other still unidentified persons, has shot at the victim S. F, hitting on the left leg. Wounded S. F, reportedly had managed to leave the critical site by being sent to a village for surgical intervention.

The defendants Milovic, Elesovic and Kostic, according to the prosecution's file, are suspected that on 22 May 1999, at the cemetery in Vushtrri City, along with Serbian military, police and paramilitary forces have assembled the Albanian civilian population, some 20-50 thousand civilians who were originally expelled from their homes and then gathered them to the cemetery in the town of Vushtrri.

In demanding detention, civilians were reportedly ordered to land, and as long as they were in that position the defendants began beating civilians by hitting them with wooden sticks on their heads and different parts of the body.

Then in co-ordination with other members of the police and paramilitary forces separate males from other members of the family and load them into trucks, where, originally, the P file says. They send SRK to the Vushtrri Sports Hall asking for money to release them.

Always according to the Prosecutor's file, it is said that even though people who went to give money for release, they were not released but were being brutalized and then sent to the Smrekonica prison. Some of them, however, were sent to the Republic of Albania in several days of persecution.

The defendant Zoran Kostic, allegedly in March 1999, had led a group of Serbian police/premiliators who had settled in the village of Reznik at a person's home.

Under the SPRK's request, defendant Kostic allegedly led the action even in the Wolfani family massacre. Where, reportedly after the victims were executed, the homes and bodies of victims were burned in their homes in the village of Reznik.

On March 6, 1999, nine members of the Wolfani family, whose corpses were then burned, had been killed.

Otherwise, the request for the detention assignment was submitted by special prosecutor Florije Salihu-Shamolli. While, the decision to appoint the detention measure was made by special department judge Vesel Ismaili.

The three Serbs suspected of war crimes were arrested on September 2023 at the order of the Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo, by the Kosovo Police.

According to the SPRK, those arrested are suspected of criminal acts sanctioned by the RSFJ Penal Code, currently penalised with Article 31 and 153 of KPRK, contrary to the Geneva Convention, and contrary to the international laws that were in force at the time of the Kosovo war.