Kosovo Police: Man arrested in Socanica Ordered into 48-Hour Detention

The Kosovo Police announced that members of the Directorate for the Investigation of War Crimes today arrested a man of Serbian nationality in Socanica, near Leposavic, on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense of “war crimes against the civilian population,” and that he has been ordered into 48-hour detention.

As previously reported by Kosovo Online, Dejan Pelevic from Socanica was arrested this afternoon. His wife stated that the incident occurred suddenly, in front of their children, which caused distress to the family.

“Based on the conducted investigation, the arrested individual is suspected, as a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia during the war in Kosovo, stationed at the Srbica police station, and being uniformed and armed in March 1999 in Srbica, in co-perpetration with other members, to have participated in a police-military operation in which he forcibly expelled civilians from their properties, beat, tortured, injured, and deprived 15 Albanian civilians of their lives, while 16 other civilians went missing at two locations in Srbica,” the police statement said.

The suspect was questioned in the presence of a lawyer, and, by decision of the prosecutor, a 48-hour detention measure was imposed.