Basic Court of Pristina issued a warrant for the arrest of 20 Serbs for alleged war crimes

The Basic Court of Pristina, Special Department, has issued arrest warrants for 20 Serbs suspected of committing war crimes in Djakovica in 1999, as reported by Reporteri.

In a decision by pre-trial judge Lutfi Shala, published by Reporteri, a warrant has been issued for the arrest of those suspected of the alleged war crime.

The arrest warrant was issued on April 15, 2025, following a request by the Special Prosecutor’s Office dated March 27, 2025.

"The Special Prosecutor’s Office submitted to the court a request for the issuance of a warrant PPS no. 25/2025 dated March 25, 2025, against the accused Milovan Kovacevic, Radomir Colic, Milos Djosan, Predrag Ristic, Srdjan Krstic, Ljubisa Obradovic, Zivko Saric, Spaso Saric, Lazar Draskovic, Zvonko Ristic, Darko Gligorijevic, Cedomir Bozovic, Vladimir Bozovic, Robert Dobrunaj, Radomir Rakovic, Ljubisa Rakovic, Milos Scepanovic, Milan Radoicic, Svetislav Gligorijevic, and Tomica Avramovic, for the criminal offense of war crimes against the civilian population in relation to Article 22 of the Criminal Code of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," the statement says.

It is also noted that on March 18, 2025, the Prosecutor’s Office issued a decision to initiate an investigation based on reasonable suspicion that:

"During the period of 1998–1999, at the location known as 'Talicki Bridge' in Djakovica, from May 7 to May 10, 1999, members of uniformed Serbian military and police forces, among whom are the aforementioned accused, entered homes by force and intimidation, forcibly removing all present, separating men from women and children, and then killing a total of 106 civilians of Albanian nationality, and after the war, their bodies were found in a mass grave in Batajnica," the decision states.