Experts say war crimes indictee Stojanovic is capable of trial, Court rejects request for super-expertisation in Skopje

This session was heard by the expert group from the Kosovo Institute of Formy Psychiatry (IPFK), composed of experts Shpend Hadzibeqiri, Bujar Obertica and Arife Veseli, reports “The Justice Voct for“.

Experts Hadzibeqi, announced that the accused Nenad Stojanovic has been subjected to an examination from 24 January to 17 March 2026.

During this time, it has been monitored 24 hours a day through cameras and medical staff, where no problems of mental or physical functioning have been faced”, said expert Shpend Hadzibeqi.

Regarding defence claims for the previous diagnosis of accused Stojanovic, expert Shpend Hadzibeqi said it is a diagnosis of the old classification, which has nothing to do with the international classification of modern-day mental illness.

According to him, on the basis of current assessments, no intellectual clinical deficits are found important and that cognitive functioning, judgment and orientation are within normal.

Experts say the defendant has worked normally in everyday life, married and worked for 10 years as a sergeant at the KPC, where he has held ammunition without incident.

Clinical psychologist Arife Vesaj said the defendant's intelligence cofficiator, Stojanovic, is “90, and above”, which according to her, is considered normal coefy. She explained that forgetting several dates as the death of a marriage mate or mother is due to emotional burdens and is no clinical memory problem.

According to Veselaj, during tests it has been identified that the accused has difficulties with numbers, but stressed that this does not affect the overall functioning and does not harm the trial.

The defence rejected expert findings.

The defender of accused Dragan Niciq, lawyer Vasilije Arsreq, said how experts could in 2026 provide findings for the defendant's mental situation in 1999.

Defending accused Slobodan Jevtic, lawyer Miodrag Brkljak, countered expert arguments that Stojanovic's marriage or military service are evidence of his mental ability. He said that the defendant did not have any bodily defects that would hinder the marriage and that his involvement in war did not require higher intellectual preparation.

He was a soldier with a shovel. This was once called engineer... not needed by any school”, Brklic said.

The defender of the accused Nenad Stojanovic, lawyer Milos Nikolic, proposed to order a super-expertosis, claiming there is a contradiction between the two so-called experts, but demanded that it be carried out by the Psychiatry Clinic in Skopje.

Prosecutor Armend Zenelaj rejected this proposal, arguing that reports drafted by the expert group have harmonised findings and that there is no need for super-expertosis.

Later, the court panel headed by Judge Beqman Beqiri made the decision with which he rejected the super-expertial defence proposal in Skopje. The court estimated that the two reports carried out have no inconsistencies that would force them to order a new examination.

The court finds that defendant Nenad Stojanovic is able to face procedure in this criminal case”, Judge Beqiri said.

The court explained that criteria from Article 510 of the Criminal Procedure Code have not been met to consider the defendant unable to be tried.

Since this defence ruling is fair to complaint at the Court of Appeals, the session has been postponed indefinitely.

At the initial session, held on January 15th 2025, the five accused were acquitted of being charged with crime.

By contrast, the Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo (PSRK), on December 27, 2024, has filed charges against defendants Dragan Tsvetkovic, Dragan Niciq, Milos Shossic, Nenad Stojanovic and Slobodan Yetiveq, who are accused of being part of the criminal group, in co-chairment with other unidentified members of this armed group and dressed in camouflaged uniforms and non-registered Serbian police or military uniforms during the Kosovo war period, specifically on May 5, 1999, in the early hours of the morning, had taken action of several unidentified villages in the region where eight Albanians were killed.

In the prosecution's file, it is said that among the villages of Inatoc (Kukaj) and Lulcza at the site called “The Priory “ <xx1>, the accused had initially stopped the victims of R.I., and J.Z., and had begun to torture the R.I.I., striking him at a permanent blow in different parts of the body, and then shot him in the direction of the J.Z., which was walking in the direction of the R.I.

The indictment says the defendants had continued to stab the late R.I. in various parts of the body and then in a pile of burning oak, they had placed both victims where R.I. was still alive and had burned their bodies, which was seen by the eyewitness R.R.

Always according to the indictment, the high-ranking defendants, towards the village of Llovca at the site called “The Lug of the Elbiscate” had now been banned from the victims of R.D., S.J., J.H., A.R., the injured N.H., as well as N.H., who had been threatened by weapons forced to lie down on the ground, controlled and then released N.H.H., while shooting at the victims, where they had been killed by R.D., S.J.J.J., J.R., A.R.R.R. The N.H., however, had ordered him to assemble the bodies of the victims and to put them on a pile of trees, then ordered him to lie down himself on the victims, and had automatically fired on the injured N.H., who had received two wounds, one on his neck and on his left shoulder, but who had survived his wounds.

Furthermore, the indictment says that in the village of Llovca while civilian populations were leaving with trailer tractors, members of this criminal group had begun shooting at them where the N.A. victim was then wounded, which was due to the wounds that had passed away, and was also injured by M.A., which was then 2 years old. Also, at the exit of the village of Pigraga, this criminal group had fired on the victim N.R., who had changed their lives as a result of their wounds.

In the indictment, it is said that this criminal group had also abused the injured F.H., B.M., and M.R., where they were sent to an agricultural co-operative in the village of Pasyan, where they had been abused in inhumane forms.

In this regard, the accused are accused of committing criminal acts “crimes against the civilian population” by Article 142 concerning the 22nd RSP of RSFJ.

Meanwhile, defendants, Milos Shosic and Nenad Stojanovic are also accused of carrying out criminal work “retaining ownership, control or unauthorized possession of weapons”, from Article 366, par.1 of the Penal Code.