Pristina Indicts Serb Over 1999 Reznik Killings
Special Prosecution in Pristina has indicted Serbian national S.S. for war crimes over the killing of nine Albanian civilians in the village of Reznik near Vucitrn on April 6, 1999.
The Special Prosecution’s Office in Pristina filed a war crime indictment on August 12 against a Serbian national identified in its statement only by the initials S.S. He is charged with taking part in the killing of nine Albanian civilians in the village of Reznik, in the municipality of Vucitrn, on April 6, 1999.
The case has been forwarded to the Basic Court in Pristina for further proceedings. The defendant is in custody.
In its statement, the prosecution lists the offense under its legal name, war crimes against the civilian population, and places the event within the 1999 conflict in Kosovo and Metohija.
What does the indictment allege?
According to the prosecution, S.S. acted together with other members of Serbian forces and with another defendant identified by the initials S.T. The indictment alleges that some of the victims were burned alive, while others were burned after being killed.
The indictment further states that S.S., together with armed men, entered the homes of Albanian families, removed property from them, and then had the houses set on fire. The published portion of the statement does not give the number of houses involved or the names of the victims.
From the Special Prosecution’s statement:
According to the indictment, on April 6, 1999, in the village of Reznica (Vucitrn), the defendant S.S., acting in complicity with other members of Serbian forces and with S.T. (already convicted by the Basic Court in Pristina), took part in the killing of nine Albanian civilians.
The statement gives the village’s name in its Albanian form, Reznica. Serbian sources refer to it as Reznik.
The co-perpetrator has already been convicted
The prosecution has not published the co-perpetrator’s name either, identifying him too only by the initials S.T. The statement includes one detail that ties this indictment to an earlier case: the Basic Court in Pristina has already tried the same event and handed down a conviction.
Neither the length of the sentence nor the date of that verdict appears in the published part of the statement. That means the new case returns to a court that has already ruled once on the same event, this time against a different defendant.
What happens next in the proceedings
An indictment is merely the prosecution’s claim. Until the court confirms it and hands down a final verdict, S.S. remains a defendant, and everything the indictment states remains an allegation that still has to withstand the evidentiary proceedings.
Until then, the custody measure also remains in place. At this stage it is ordered to secure the proceedings, not as punishment. The prosecution has not disclosed when S.S. was arrested or how long he has been held in custody.
No photograph of the defendant was released with the statement, and his identity was not disclosed in the text either. We are withholding his full name for the same reason: before a final verdict, it does not leave the case file.
The indictment covers a single day and a single village. The published part of the statement does not say how many houses were burned, who the nine victims were, or whether women and children were among them. Nor does it specify how many people took part in the event overall, only that, besides S.S. and S.T., other armed members of Serbian forces were involved.
How far this case goes now depends on the Basic Court in Pristina, where it currently stands. The prosecution has not announced the date of the first hearing.
