Zubin Potok: Nine Serbs Held in Custody Until Dec. 25
A Pristina court extended custody for nine suspects in a 1999 war crime, and the Supreme Court rejected defense requests. Defense: a client is named as both defendant and witness.
The Basic Court in Pristina has extended custody by another two months for nine Serbs from the Zubin Potok municipality who are suspected of a war crime against the civilian population. According to Radio KiM, the new term runs from October 26 to December 25, 2026. The pretrial judge extended the custody, and the Supreme Court in Pristina rejected the defense requests for protection of legality as unfounded.
What did the Supreme Court decide?
A Supreme Court panel ruled at a session on October 23. Attorney Jelena Krivokapic, defense counsel for Miroslav Radojevic, said she received the decision electronically on October 26. The requests were filed against a ruling of the Basic Court in Pristina, Special Department.
According to her, the Supreme Court gave the same reasons as the lower courts: risk of flight, the possibility of influencing witnesses, and a well-founded suspicion that the suspects committed the acts they are charged with. Custody was ordered by a ruling of September 29, two days after the arrests, and the Court of Appeals upheld it on October 8.
Radio KiM lists the suspects by initials: D.D., M.R., M.R., R.R., S.D., S.D., V.L., R.R. and D.D. They are charged with a war crime against the civilian population under Article 142, in conjunction with Article 22, of the former Criminal Code of Yugoslavia.
What does the prosecution allege?
According to the prosecution, whose claims are relayed by Albanian-language media, the suspects are linked to a case called “Group of Intellectuals,” which concerns the killing and disappearance of 23 Albanian civilians. In the case known as “Dossier 23,” the prosecution alleges that the suspects, together with other persons, rounded up a group of 23 Albanian civilians on April 19, 1999, as members of the Territorial Defense in the villages of Zubin Potok, at the Mala Kaludra location, robbed them, abused them and then executed them.
The prosecution claims that “the civilians were detained, beaten and abused, and then executed,” and that the suspects allegedly tried to burn the bodies with gasoline. Twelve names are mentioned in the case, which is more than the nine in custody, along with other persons whose identity, according to the prosecution, is yet to be established.
Why does the defense consider the reasoning questionable?
The defense focuses on a single decision: a client is named in the same proceedings as both a defendant and a witness. The sources differ on who made the statement. RTS attributes the claim to attorney Predrag Miljkovic and his client, while Objektiv ties the first quote to the attorney of defendant M. R. and signs the second with the name Miljkovic.
According to Objektiv, the attorney stated:
“M. R., my client, is listed as a witness in the proceedings against himself. We pointed out in the appeal that this is impossible, but it was rejected. In the request for protection of legality we again pointed out that such a situation is impossible”
On the Supreme Court’s reasoning, Miljkovic said:
“The Supreme Court even states that there is a well-founded danger that the defendants, among them M. R., will influence witnesses, among them again M. R. So there is a danger that the defendants will influence themselves as the witness M. R.”
Miljkovic added that the review of custody has never been worse. In the reasoning of the decision, apart from a list of witness names, there is no description of their statements, which, as he put it, is evidence in criminal proceedings and a mandatory part of the reasoning.
How many people were arrested in Zubin Potok?
RTS reports that the nine form the largest group of Serbs detained in Kosovo and Metohija in a single operation over suspected war crimes. They were arrested on September 27. That arrest was preceded by other actions in Zubin Potok: according to claims from Pristina, a total of 13 people arrested from that municipality are linked to human bones found in a mass grave in the village of Mala Kaludra.
Separately, four more Serbs have been arrested since the end of July on suspicion of war crimes, and the court in Pristina ordered custody of up to 30 days for them. The sources do not explain how the figure of 13 relates to the nine and the four. The custody term cited by Radio KiM expires on December 25.
