A month's detention of 82-year-old war crimes suspect against civilian population

The Constitutional Court in Pristina, the Special Department on September 13th, 2024, has assigned the detention measure in 30 days' length to Tomislav Pantic, who is suspected of war crimes against the civilian population.

The verdict, secured by the “Justice Vow”, reportedly says that the detention measure suspects Pantiq will be calculated from the time of detention on September 12th 2024 to October 11th 2024, while investigative actions against him reportedly began on September 9th 2024.

The detention measure under this act is assigned according to Article 184 (which envisions the conditions needed for the detention assignment) paragraph 1 under paragraph 1.1 and 1.2, provision 1.2.1 of the Penal Procedure Code.

Under this decision, the Pantic allegedly committed the criminal act “War against the civilian population” sanctioned with Article 142 concerning Article 22 of Yugoslavia's Socialist Federation Republic's Penal Law (LP-RSFJ), as a law in force at the time of the conduct of criminal work, which the Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo (PSRK) has also based its request for the appointment of custody of the same.

On the other hand, in the reasoning of that decision, there is reportedly suspicion that the same one committed the criminal act he suspected of, because according to the court, it is confirmed by evidence attached to the subject documents as well as in the request for the detention measure.

The detention assignment, the court has also argued that there is reason to believe that if the same is found in freedom, it could prevent the normal course of criminal procedure, so that the same could avoid procedure and be elusive by justice organs.

Because the defendant is suspected of criminalising a highly sanctioned social risk and international norms, as well as of the consequences allegedly caused by incriminating acts that are placed on the defendants, the court ruled as the device of this act” is further said in the court's ruling.

The court is also said to have received on the basis of the facts that the Pantyq suspect is a Serb citizen and is found with permanent residence in Serbia and by social legal assessments according to this court it is clearly known that Serbia's state has notally expressed judicial co-operation in criminal cases with the Republic of Kosovo.

Thus, assigning the detention measure to this court at present is the only measure for the unhindered flow of criminal procedure in the case.