Dragan Ristic acquitted of war crimes in Gjakova

The Act against Ristic was proclaimed on Wednesday by the chairman of the court, Beqman Beqiri, and members Lutfi Shala and Donika Shala-Abdyli, reports “Justice Vow “, transnetton Periscope.

According to the ruling, it has not been proved that the accused committed the offense. He's interrupted the detention measure.

The accused Ristic was not present at the announcement.

According to the Special Prosecutor's Act, established on June 27, 2025, Dragan Ristic was charged that during the period of 1998, in wartime Kosovo, on the territory of the town of Gjakova, acting in co-ordination with other members of Serbian police and military forces, violating the rules of international law, has taken part in killings, physical and psychic abuses, arrests, theft and destruction of the active and real estate of the Albanian national population, which were not involved in war.

Always in accordance with the indictment, on May 10, 1999, on the “Bajram Curri” road in Gjakova, members of Serbian police and military forces, including the defendant, uniformed and armed, divided into various groups, had entered the house of M.D., where the M.D., Dukagji Dula, his wife, a child, and two accommodated C.H. and I.L.

Initially, they reportedly ordered the injured to go into the courtyard, where a policeman had stopped the victims of C.H. and I.L., then one of the Serb forces told “ah you are the KLA” and immediately shot at them, killing them both.

Another policeman reportedly had entered the house where M.D. was staying. And had shot, while other policemen in the yard had fired guns at the feet of the injured Florie Dula, Dukagjin Dula, and so on, forcing them to leave the house.

Always in accordance with the indictment, on May 13, 1999, Florije Dula, along with Sabrije Dula and Humajun Dyla, had returned home, where the bodies of those after the war had been found killed in the corridor killed by M.D., whose blood face and chest wounds, while the identification had been done through DNA analysis of Serbia.

The indictment reportedly states that from May 7th to May 10, 1999, on the territory of the town of Gjakova, under a broad and systematic attack of Serbian military forces, police and paramilitary forces against the Albanian civilian population, defendant Dragan Ristic had exercised physical, psychological violence and inhuman treatment of Albanian civilians, actively participating in the ban and violent division of Albanian civil males from their families.

The indictment says that on May 10, 1999, at the improvised checkpoint at the Islam Beach Bridge (the Tower of Avdullah Pasha) in Gjakova, acting in co-ordination with two other members of Serbian forces, had initially stopped the car, which was driven by Massar Çaka, forced out of the car of Massar and Africa Caka injured, had demanded money and, in absence of monetary means, had exercised physical violence against them, including fists, fists, and coups, presence of the family and other civilians, as well as otherwise ill-treated civilians in a place without legal or legislation.

At the same time, the indictment reportedly had exercised control over the column of expelled civilians with the intent of selecting and dividing men for further depressive purposes, cerces during this action were arrested Africa Caka and Enver Dula, and some 300 civilians of Albanian nationalism and other communities, who were initially held in improvised prisons without human treatment, lacking basics as regular food, hygiene and health care.

Then, a portion of the prisoners had been released, about 150 of them were sent to various prisons in Kosovo, and, in the end, from Dubrava Prison, according to the indictment, were transferred to Serbian prisons, where, after June 1999, the injured were released with the help of international organisations.

At the third point of the first device, Serbian police and military forces reportedly, with violence and under threat of weapons, expelled the Caka families, Dula and all families living on the streets “Bajram Curri”, “Muliri”, “The Temple (4)x5> and “Fraser” of the town of Gjakova.

At this point it is further said that, on the critical day, members of Serbian police and military forces had entered the Dula family home in Gjakova and had killed three people.

According to the indictment, the same had forced all neighborhood residents to join columns of civilian residents of Albanian nationalism and other nationalities, who were violently leaving Gjakova.

According to the fourth point of the indictment, during a Serbian police and military forces action launched on May 7th 1999 and completed on May 10th 1999, including defendant Dragan Ristic, first looted the homes of the Caba and Dyla families and all the houses on the <x0th> Bayram Curri”, “rri<3>, “the Mtrabrat <6Mhat Fras@7x> of the Albanian Nationality, after much material damage was caused.

With these actions, defendant Dragan Ristic was accused of committing the criminal act “wage war against the civilian population” in co-ordination, sanctioned with Article 142 concerning Article 22 of Yugoslavia's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's Criminal Law, as law in effect at the time of carrying out the criminal work.