Serbia continues persecution of Kosovo citizens, arresting them on unknown charges

Serbian authorities are continuing to arrest Kosovo citizens, under suspicion of committing war crimes in the late 1990s.

The last person arrested is Tefik Mustafa, which was detained at the Merdare border point between Kosovo and Serbia on 1 June.

At the same time, Kosovo's other citizens, Sadik Durak, have continued the detention measure for even 30 days. It has been banned in Serbia, April 17th of this year.

Kosovo accuses Serbia of arbitrary arrests and requires the reaction of the QUINT countries and the European Union.

Serbian institutions have not been promoted to the media, nor has Serbia's War Crimes Prosecution responded to Radio Free Europe's question, if there is a list of Kosovo citizens who are suspected of war crimes.

REL has not received answers either to whether Serbia exchanges judicial requirements with Kosovo, in line with the Agreement for bilateral judicial assistance, through the EU.

In the annual report for 2023, Kosovo's Humanitarian Law Fund has cited the great need for co-operation between Kosovo's special prosecutors and Serbia.

Kosovo seeks responsibility from Serbia

Kosovo's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that Kosovo, through the Liaison Office in Serbia, has sought to clarify the reasons for Tefik Mustafa's arrest.

The ministry has also called on the international community to take steps for its immediate release.

“at the same time to seek responsibility from the Serbian state for these arbitrary and destructive actions, and that clash with international human rights conventions”.

Neither the Ministry of Justice nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgrade responded to the REL's request for comments on these claims by Kosovo authorities.

Earlier, Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs had said Mustafa, as a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, was mentioned in witness statements as participants in the kidnapping of three Serb policemen in Kosovo.

“After this act, every trace of” has been lost, that statement said.

Tefik Mustafa's family: He hasn't been to Kosovo in the late 1990s

Mustafa's son, Qamil Mustafa, says his father was not in Kosovo from August 1997 to 2004.

August 24, 1997, has been in Germany. In 1997 he left Kosovo and returned for the first time in 2004, after arranging the documentation for movement,” said Qamil Mustafa.

He shows that at the moment of his arrest, Tefik Mustafa has been traveling from Kosovo to Slovenia and Italy, while explaining that this has not been the first time Tefik Mustafa has passed through Serbia's territory.

“has travelled over 10 times [through Serbia], there has never been any trouble,”, he says, adding that the last time he had travelled last year was about September.

Qamil Mustafa considers the charges against his father to be groundless, unserious and unrealistic.

He says the only contact the family has had with Tefik Mustafa has been from Kursumlia, where it is held in custody, and were later announced for the session, which was scheduled for Monday in Belgrade.

Currently, he says Kosovo institutions are dealing with the case and are maintaining continued contact with family members.

Meanwhile, the Council for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms (KMDLNJ) in Kosovo has once again appealed to citizens, who can eventually be arrested by Serbian police, not travelling through Serbia, as they will not be visited by human rights organisations and have problems securing effective legal protection.

Sadik Duraku remains in custody

Kosovo citizens Sadik Duraku has continued to take custody in Serbia for even 30 days, his lawyer, Goran Petronijevic, has said on 4 June, in some response to Radio Free Europe.

Duraku é, who also has British citizenship, has been arrested on April 17th this year at the border point between Croatia and Serbia.

According to Serbian authorities, he allegedly committed criminal work “created war against the civilian population”.

Serbian authorities suspect Duraku, “along with strangers, during 1999, in the Gjakova municipality area of Prizren and Peja, as a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, has beaten, physically, mentally harassed and robbed the civilian population”.

His lawyer, Petronijevic, has said the detention measure has been continued due to the risk of escape, since Duraku is a foreign citizen and does not live in Serbia.

He has said the prosecution is very passive in this case and has not made any decisions for a month and a half.

The procedure, with its inaction, forces us to testify that he is not guilty. In my opinion, evidence collected by the prosecution does not in any way confirm their” claims, he said.

Petronijevic has said Duraku has been enduring in Great Britain since December 1998, and has not returned to Kosovo until 2004.

Even Avdyl Duraku, Sadik's brother, told Radio Free Europe that he has lived in England with his family since the war began.

“In Kosovo for the first time after the war came in 2004”, he said, until he showed that Sadik's health is not good, as he is suffering from heart problems.

“I hope he's out alive, this is my problem, because he's not in good health”, he said among other things Avdyli.

Who else did Serbia arrest?

Four Kosovo Albanians are in custody in Serbia.

Apart from Mustafa and Durak, last arrested are Hasan Dakaaj, former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK).

He has been arrested on January 6th at the Merdar border checkpoint.

The act against him has not yet been published. Serbia's War Crimes Prosecutor charges him with war crimes co-operation against the civilian population.

Dajaj, in the words of his legal representative, Xhevdet Smakqi, has flatly denied the charges before Serbia's judicial bodies.

The trial is also under way against Neziri Mehmetaj, who was arrested on 4 January 2020 at the Merdare crossing.

The excise was set up in December that year, while the judgment began in April 2021. Mehmetaj has remained in custody all the time.

Serbia's Humanitarian Law Fund report on war crimes trials says the prosecution has been unable to provide no key witness for more than two years.

In November 2022, the Supreme Court in Belgrade found Petrit Dula guilty of war crimes in a village near Gjakova in 1999, while he was a member of the KLA.

However, in April 2023, he was declared innocent.

However, he has carried out in Belgrade the sentence of the first court of two years in prison.

In 2018, Ramadan Maloku was arrested and charged with a crime in the Upper Nerodimes in the Ferizaj municipality.

By accepting the plea agreement, in March 2019, he was sentenced to one and a half years in prison.

In November 2016, Hilmi Kelmendi was arrested on the charge of war crimes, but the prosecution stopped prosecution, and after several days he was released.

In April 2012, Mark Kashnjet was arrested and tried for crimes against civilians in Prizren, Kosovo.

He was later declared innocent.

Arrests by Serbian citizens in Kosovo

Kosovo police, in co-operation with the Prosecutor, have arrested several Serbian citizens for war crimes in Kosovo.

It's about displaced persons from Kosovo who live on the territory of Serbia, and according to the Kosovo Fund for Humanitarian Law data, those arrested mainly have Kosovo documents, respectively, dual citizenship.

According to this Fund's annual report, criminal procedures have been launched during 2023 on 26 occasions against 81 members of Serbian forces and a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Eight charges have been filed in absentia against 61 members of Serbian forces under suspicion of committing war crimes.

One of the latest war crimes convictions, before Kosovo courts, is submitted in February, when Dukko Arsiq has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for war crimes against the civilian population on the territory of the Pristina municipality.

According to the indictment, Arsic has participated in the murder of a person with initials B. S., April 20, 1999, in the village of Bovovac near Pristina.

The indictment has also said that he, along with another group, has looted and burned Albanian properties.

On the other hand, lawyer Nebojsa Vlasic has claimed that his client has been indicted and sentenced for war crimes because he has tried to regain his usurped property on Pristina territory and return to Kosovo.

Assic has been in custody since 2021, when he was arrested at the border checkpoint, Jarinje.

The Office for Kosovo in Serbia's Government has declared that Assreq has entered Kosovo territory several times, and has moved without any problems.

This office has said that Arsef has been arrested because of his case over his property in Matican near Pristina, which is allegedly usurped, based on false documents and statements.

In the Kosovo Humanitarian Law Fund's report of 2023, it is said that the lack of co-operation and exchange of information between Kosovo and Serbia results in non-efficiency in war crimes acts. /REL/