Milojko Djordjevic hearing postponed, defense lacks files

A court in Pristina postponed the hearing of Milojko Djordjevic on October 23. He is a former police commander in Zvecan charged with war crimes against ethnic Albanian civilians in 1998 and 1999. The new date is November 2. The defense asked for the delay because, it says, prosecutors never delivered the case files, and the court granted the request. Some Serbian media also spell the defendant’s first name Miljojko.

Why was the hearing postponed?

Because the prosecution and the defense disagreed over who was supposed to move the files from one place to another. The hearing at the Basic Court in Pristina was presided over by Judge Kustrim Siti. Also present were the defendant, Djordjevic, his lawyer Predrag Miljkovic, special prosecutor Iljir Morina, the injured parties Afrim, Avni and Mejreme Peci, and a representative of the victims.

Miljkovic objected to holding the hearing. At the hearing itself he said:

“The indictment was filed on October 11, 2026. I received an email from the prosecution in English, saying I should come on the 21st at 1:15 p.m. I have other trial obligations, and on top of that I am not obliged to go to the prosecutor’s office to collect the case files. I object to holding this hearing.”

The lawyer added that his office address is publicly available on the Bar Association’s website, so the prosecution could have sent the documents by post. He also pointed to electronic delivery, since that is how he already receives court decisions.

Prosecutor Morina replied that the office of prosecutor Fljorije Samoli, who leads the case, tried several times to arrange delivery of the files, and that the presiding judge was informed because the lawyer did not respond to attempts at contact. Sending the indictment and the files by post is not standard practice, Morina said, especially given how sensitive the case is. According to him, the lawyer never explicitly asked for physical delivery, and if he had, the files could have arrived the same day by a prosecution driver.

Miljkovic explained at greater length why he wants a delay:

“It has become almost the rule rather than the exception that case files are received after the preparatory hearing has been held. Today I insisted that this hearing be postponed and that all case files be properly delivered to us, since there are a large number of witnesses and victims, and the defense has the right to inspect the case files and their statements before entering a plea on the indictment. And even after the plea, if we received the case files that way, we would be using up our 30-day deadline on something we are not legally obliged to do.”

What is Djordjevic accused of?

The Kosovo Special Prosecution Office filed the indictment on October 11, 2026. According to it, Djordjevic, as police commander in Zvecan in 1998 and 1999, took part together with other police members in killings, inhumane treatment, intimidation, destruction of property and the expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians. Among other things, prosecutors charge him with:

• abusing Avdi Peci at a police checkpoint on the Iron Bridge (Gvozdeni Most) in September and October 1998
• taking part in an operation in the village of Zaza on April 29, 1999, in which, according to the indictment, three civilians were killed and seven were taken away from the village
• physically and psychologically abusing Sebahate Peci, whom, prosecutors say, he struck after she refused to sign a document during a population registration

The remains of several victims from Zaza, prosecutors say, were later found in a cemetery in Suvi Do near Mitrovica, while Adem Haziri is still listed as missing.

Djordjevic was arrested on May 15, 2025, in the Brdjani neighborhood of North Mitrovica, on an order from the Kosovo Special Prosecution Office. Until November 2022, when Serbs from the north collectively left Kosovo institutions, he was a member of the Kosovo Police. He is presumed innocent until guilt is established by a final verdict.

What does the defense say about the detention?

The defense also drew an objection about the length of his detention from the files. When the prosecutor delivered the files to him the same day, Miljkovic says, he found that the last investigative action was taken on February 3, 2026, while his client has been in detention the whole time, reportedly because a witness from abroad is awaited.

“He was questioned on September 9 last year, which means that after February 3 this year not a single investigative action was carried out, and he has been in detention to this day. So for more than eight months he was in detention without any basis, and that detention review is very questionable on the part of the court, and of course the prosecution.”

The indictment was filed close to the legal maximum, Miljkovic says:

“So 17, almost 17.5 months in detention, and it can be 18 months until the indictment is filed. That is very problematic and points to a pattern of behavior by the prosecution, and to the fact that they neither run the proceedings urgently, nor conscientiously, nor do they care whether someone is in detention and whether someone will suffer consequences because of it.”

The next hearing is scheduled for November 2. Prosecutor Morina said at the hearing that the prosecution is trying to deliver the files to the defense.