Marinkovic: Everything Kelmendi said about Racak is a lie, I have never even met him

Investigative judge in the Racak case Danica Marinkovic told Kosovo Online that the accusations that she destroyed evidence related to that investigation are false. These allegations were made yesterday, at a press conference following his testimony before the Special Prosecutor’s Office, by now-former Deputy Chief Prosecutor Besim Kelmendi.

Marinkovic stated that the only truth Kelmendi said about her is that they had never met nor worked together.

“Everything he said is a lie; it is a disgrace. The case files and the evidence on Racak exist. The case exists from the first to the last page. I took copies of the case with me; I even have a book about it. On 12 June 1999, Albanians took the complete files of my cases—including the one on Racak—when they stormed the court premises. I assume they were the ones who destroyed them,” Marinkovic said in a telephone statement for our portal.

She added that she had never met Kelmendi nor worked with him.

“I don’t know where he was during the war, nor what he was doing. During the war, I was an investigative judge; I knew everyone and I dealt with my investigations. The court was staffed predominantly by Serbs—Albanians were boycotting the judiciary at that time,” Marinkovic explained.

Asked why the Racak case was being brought up again now, Marinkovic replied that the case is “clean as a tear.”

“Clearly, they have nothing else to do, so they occupy themselves with this. Racak is clean as a tear. From day one, I have been telling the truth and only the truth about Racak. William Walker put forward a shameless lie that a massacre of Albanian villagers took place in Racak, that bodies were missing parts… Those who died there were terrorists. Racak was a legal and legitimate operation of the Serbian Army, and all the bodies had wounds inflicted by small arms, which proves there was no massacre. Three times, as part of the investigation, we entered people’s houses and found a ton of weapons, which only confirms what I said,” Marinkovic stated.

Let us recall that former Acting Chief Kosovo Prosecutor Besim Kelmendi, who was dismissed today, gave a statement yesterday to the Special Prosecutor’s Office as a witness in relation to the investigation into the Racak case.

At the press conference, Kelmendi told reporters that he had told the prosecutor he had never been in Racak before 2001 and that falsehoods were being spread about him, adding that he had assisted the KLA during the war. At the conference, he also claimed that “Danica Marinkovic was the judge who took part in plundering all the premises around the court, who destroyed evidence of the massacre in Racak, where she conducted the on-site investigation.”