Pristina says Kraljevo suspect is a Mala Kaludra witness
Serbia's Interior Ministry accuses R. T., 46, of espionage. Pristina says the man is Ranko Tepavac, who told investigators in 2003 how 23 Albanian civilians were killed.
An arrest in Kraljevo and the Mala Kaludra case landed in the same week. Serbia’s Interior Ministry, the MUP, announced on July 30, 2026 that R. T., 46, from Istok had been arrested in Kraljevo on suspicion of espionage under Article 315 of the Criminal Code. Officials in Pristina say the man is Ranko Tepavac, who in 2003 described to investigators the killing of 23 Albanian civilians near Zubin Potok.
According to the ministry, the arrest was carried out by MUP officers together with the Kraljevo Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Security Information Agency, the BIA. The suspect was held for up to 48 hours before being handed over to prosecutors. We reported the arrest itself on Thursday, when the statement gave nothing beyond initials, age and the charge.
What the ministry statement says
The MUP says the suspect had an intelligence relationship with an Albanian intelligence service operating in Kosovo, and that he gathered and passed on information about serving and former members of the Serbian Army, the police and other security structures.
That information, the statement continues, led to the arrest of several ethnic Serbs by Pristina’s provisional institutions and to the persecution of a larger number of Serbs from Zubin Potok and northern Kosovo. Guilt is decided in court, and for now the man stands accused rather than convicted.
Why does Pristina call him a witness?
Officials and media in Pristina argue the man is not a spy but a witness. Tepavac gave his account to UNMIK investigators and the Kosovo Police in February 2003, and the Albanian-language daily Zëri published it in January 2013.
The account covers April 19, 1999. A group led by Jovica Utvic from Mala Kaludra stopped Albanian civilians, took their money and valuables with a promise they would be let through toward Ulcinj, then ordered them to turn around and opened fire. Tepavac also described an order he said came from local police: “Bury the ones you killed”.
Andin Hoti, head of the Kosovo government commission on missing persons, read the arrest as a message aimed at other witnesses.
This is not just the arrest of one man. This is an attempt to intimidate everyone who speaks the truth about war crimes
Analyst Imer Muskoljaj said Serbia is “arresting a witness to a crime”.
The dig that is still going on
The Humanitarian Law Center, its Kosovo counterpart FHPK and the RECOM network said the information about a possible grave at Mala Kaludra had been in the hands of investigators for more than two decades. They released files with biographies of the 23 missing people and their International Committee of the Red Cross registration numbers. Among them are doctors, teachers, students, businessmen and political activists, including the surgeon Adem Ademi, the physician Fatmir Fazlia and Selim Meziu. The Humanitarian Law Center text on Mala Kaludra is signed by Natasa Kandic.
The Kosovo Special Prosecution ordered the excavation. Human remains have been found, and identification is under way and will require DNA analysis. Two Serbs from Zubin Potok, M. J. and M. B., were ordered into 30 days of detention by Pristina institutions.
The timeline now has four fixed points: the killings of April 1999, the statement of 2003, its publication in 2013, and the dig that began this week. The fifth is the Kraljevo arrest, and the prosecutor’s decision in that city will be the first thing to define it.
