How does Kosovo send invitations to courts of suspects in Serbia?

After claims were made on social networks that Serbia had handed over to Kosovo authorities the personal data of its citizens, Serbia's Justice Ministry reacted, saying state institutions “have not participated and will not participate in the delivery of these letters”, writes Radio Free Europe.

She added that competent organs will examine all the circumstances that, according to her, “have disturbed public opinion”.

“Citizens should know that they are not obliged to treat these letters as valid acts”, it was said, among other things, in the Serbian ministry's announcement.

In Radio Europe Free Radio questions on how many invitations have been sent to the addresses in Serbia and how they have been delivered, the Kosovo Special Prosecutor answered briefly: “We have no comment”.

Serbia does not recognise Kosovo's independence, declared in 2008, and, therefore, does not recognise its institutions either.

For this reason, there is no direct judicial co-operation between the two countries.

Co-operation is carried out through the European Union's mission to rule the law in Kosovo (EULEX), which, among other things, oversees the functioning of the justice system in Kosovo.

In 2018, E ULEX passed all cases related to war crimes to local institutions in Kosovo.

EULEX told Free Europe Radio that they have not been mediating in handing over recent interrogation invitations to war crimes cases sent to the addresses of persons living in Serbia.

How did invitations reach Serbia's addresses?

Former commander of Serbia's Gendarmerie Goran Radosavlevkiq Guri said in early June that Serb military and police veterans have received invitations for questioning at their addresses in Serbia.

He voiced doubt that “any of our” has given Kosovo authorities their personal data.

The United States links Radosavlevcin to killing the Bytyqi brothers after the war ended in Kosovo in 1999.

On social networks, meanwhile, claims began to circulate that invitations from Kosovo have been sent to addresses in Serbia through Vienna.

Serbia's Post Office Director Zoran Afelkovovic's duty tells Radio Free Europe that all postal shipments between Kosovo and Serbia pass through international exchange, as Belgrade and Pristina have no agreement for postal co-operation.

The “do not go through Vienna alone but also through other cities, such as Ljubljana and Budapest. All shipments from Pristina are classified in Vienna and, later, those addressed to Serbia are sent there. The same procedure applies to letters sent from Belgrade to any country in Kosovo”, says Angelkoviq.

Serbia's ruling party MP, the Serbian Progressive Party, and the member of the Parliamentary Commission for Defence and Home Affairs, Milovan Drescu, said he does not know how Kosovo institutions have secured the addresses of former army and police members.

According to information he has, “has many invalid and incomplete addresses”.

Drescu recalled that with the Brussels Agreement a mechanism for international judicial assistance that should operate through EULEX, but, according to him, Kosovo institutions have bypassed this mechanism and “have sent out the invitations directly to people”.

Kosovo and Serbia arrived in 2013, with the European Union's mediation, an agreement for mutual judicial assistance, but it has not worked in practice.

Blake: Without cooperation there is no justice, no reconciliation

Bekim Blakaj, from the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Kosovo, tells Radio Free Europe that the focus should not be on the way Kosovo institutions have handed over interrogation invitations on Serbia's territory, but on achieving justice.

According to him, transitional justice in the space of the former Yugoslavia has failed precisely because of the lack of co-operation among countries of the region.

In this context, it calls for “excusing” the justice ministry's response to Serbia.

“instead of finding a way to co-operate with Kosovo institutions or to prosecute these persons themselves, calls for boycotting interrogation invitations. As a result, not only will the families of war crimes victims remain without justice but the truth will be denied as well. Instead of confronting the past, each side will continue to have its own truth, contrary to that of the other side”, Blakaj says.

He adds that any lack of co-operation in prosecuting war crimes also implies rejection of victims, which, according to him, makes reconciliation impossible.

“Peace in the region is not possible unless we face the past and accept the victims and crimes that have been committed”, Blakaj says.

During the Kosovo war from 1998 to 1999, over 13,000 people were killed, while thousands of others disappeared.

Research still continues for about 1,600 missing persons, most of them Albanians.

Within the dialogue for normalising relations, Kosovo and Serbia have adopted the Declaration on Missing Persons, after which the Joint Commission was formed.

It aims to provide political support to the working groups for identifying potential mass or individual cemetery through exchange of information.

Courts and Punishments in Lack

Between Pristina and Belgrade, there is no deal for extradition.

But, since 2022, following changes to the Kosovo Criminal Procedure Code, judgments in absentia have been made possible.

Under the law, they can be developed only if the prosecution and the court have exhausted all means to ensure the prosecution's presence.

The first sentence after a trial in absentia was handed down in December 2024 in the case of Cedomir Aksic, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for war crimes against the civilian population committed in the villages of Recak, Molopolc and Petrov.

Earlier, the Kosovo Institute for Justice (IKD) has told Radio Free Europe that Kosovo institutions have the right to request issuing an Interpol red ID for persons convicted of war crimes.

Since Kosovo is not a member of international police, Interpol, these requests are forwarded through the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

However, Interpol's red ID is not the same as the arrest warrant.

Every member state implements its own legislation and independently decides whether to act on its basis.

In practice, this means that Serbia, most likely, would not act on a Kosovo requirement, since it does not recognise its independence.

But another Interpol member state can arrest and extradite to Kosovo a person convicted in absence of war crimes.

Under legislation in effect, each person convicted in absentia is entitled to a new and unconditional retrial if arrested and extradited to Kosovo.