Kosovo police log death threats as a terrorism case

Kosovo Police said on July 31 that death threats against institutional officials had been sent over social media, and that the file has been registered as a terrorism offence. The report is dated July 28, 2026, and lists Zubin Potok as the place of the incident.

It started with a single photograph. It shows a police officer securing a site in the village of Mala Kaludra near Zubin Potok, where an exhumation is under way as part of a war crimes investigation. The picture later appeared on an account linked to Severna Brigada, alongside messages the police describe as threatening.

The force’s Regional Directorate North said the relevant units are investigating and are taking steps to establish the full picture. Police did not say who posted the photograph, or how many messages were sent.

The photo was taken at a site guarded by special units

The date on the report matches the busiest day of the operation. Kosovo’s Special Prosecution confirmed on July 28 that an exhumation was being carried out in the Zubin Potok municipality under a court order, as part of two separate criminal investigations. The same day, two men identified in official statements only as M. J. and M. B. were arrested in Zubin Potok on suspicion of a war crime against the civilian population committed in 1999. They were later ordered into one month of detention.

Footage from the site showed Kosovo Police special units securing the area, with EULEX patrols present. The officer in the disputed photograph was doing exactly that job. We reported on the discovery of human remains at Mala Kaludra the same day.

Srpska Lista called the arrests a continuation of pressure on the Serb population and urged the international community to take a closer interest in cases brought against Serbs in Kosovo.

Mala Kaludra has for years been linked in Kosovo’s public debate to the disappearance of 23 Albanians known as the “group of intellectuals”, who, according to Kosovo institutions, were abducted on April 19, 1999, in the Drenica and Kaludra areas. Prosecutors have not confirmed that the exhumation relates to that case.

Why is a threat treated as terrorism?

The classification rests on a decision taken more than three years ago. In June 2023 the government in Pristina designated Civilna Zastita and Severna Brigada as terrorist organisations, citing their links to incidents in northern Kosovo and threats against Kosovo Police, EULEX and KFOR. Since that ruling took effect, a message sent from an account the police attribute to that structure lands in the case files as terrorism rather than as intimidation.

For most people in northern Kosovo, the name Severna Brigada has surfaced mainly as stencilled graffiti on walls and pavements. The July 28 report attaches it to something narrower: one serving police officer, photographed at a site being dug up on a judge’s order.

Police did not say whether anyone has been detained over the post, or whether the account has since been taken down. The Special Prosecution, which is running the two investigations behind the Mala Kaludra dig, said it will release further information only to the extent that it does not damage the criminal proceedings, the identification process, or the rights of victims’ families.