Belosevic brothers: Kosovo prosecutors seek detention
Two Serbs from Crkolez were arrested on suspicion of a war crime in Padaliste in 1999. A Pristina judge is deciding on detention, and the defense wants house arrest or bail.
Prosecutors in Kosovo are seeking up to 30 days of detention for Zikica Belosevic and Grujica Belosevic of Crkolez, whom they suspect of a war crime in Padaliste in March 1999. The hearing was held on October 30 in Pristina, and the pretrial judge of the Basic Court is deciding on detention. The defense is asking for a milder measure.
What did Kosovo authorities say about the arrests?
Kosovo Police and the Special Prosecution confirmed in a joint statement on October 29 that two people had been arrested, in the villages of Osojane and Crkolez in the municipality of Istok. The case is being handled as the “Padaliste massacre,” committed on March 26, 1999. The Kosovo Police War Crimes Investigation Directorate, on the orders of the Special Prosecution, has been conducting investigative work “over a longer period of time,” and investigators from the War Crimes Unit were also active on the ground, according to the statement.
The statement gives only the initials Z. B. and G. B., and police say they will take all further steps in coordination with the Special Prosecution. The names Zikica and Grujica Belosevic come from defense lawyers and from the media that followed the hearing.
Attorney Milos Delevic, who represents Zikica Belosevic, said the prosecution charges both men with the Padaliste crime, meaning the killing of 19 ethnic Albanian civilians. Grujica Belosevic is represented by attorney Dejan Vasic.
How many people were detained?
The accounts differ. Kosovo Police speak of two arrests. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija and the Srpska Lista party say three people were detained, among them Obrad Tijanic of Crkolez, who was released after questioning by police.
According to the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Zikica Belosevic was detained at his workplace, a kindergarten in Osojane, while Grujica Belosevic and Tijanic were detained afterward in Crkolez. The office also said police blocked the villages with jeeps and heavily armed officers, that searches in Crkolez were continuing, and that Zikica Belosevic is the father of three minor children. The same statement reads:
He has not left the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, or his own doorstep, since the conflict in 1999, because he had no reason to hide. He was detained at his workplace, a kindergarten in Osojane, which upset the children and the colleagues who happened to be there.
The office added that it will inform international representatives of the case: “The Office for Kosovo and Metohija will inform the relevant international representatives of this Kurti terror and institutional violence, with a demand that they urgently get involved, within their mandates, in protecting Serbs and ensuring respect for their human rights and protection.”
What is the defense asking for?
The prosecutor asked for up to 30 days of detention for both men, and the defense opposed the request. Delevic told RTS there are no grounds for detention and explained the proposal for a milder measure:
We stated that Grujica and Zikica Belosevic lived in Kosovo after the war, that for 27 years after the war they lived in their village, tended livestock, farmed, and never went on the run. There are no grounds for the measure of judicial detention. We proposed an alternative measure: house arrest or bail, with a guarantee that the suspects will defend themselves from freedom, that is, that they will respond to court summonses.
The same lawyer said the prosecution has no evidence, and added that he could not say more about the case itself:
Tell me, what man who had taken part in those killings would have stayed in Kosovo and lived for 27 years alongside Albanians he meets every day? I think the Special Prosecution is faced with people who are on the run and out of its reach because they are in Serbia, and, faced with those failures, it arrests these innocent people without a single piece of evidence, believe me. I cannot go into more detail about this case because the investigation is secret. I will let you know about the court’s decision.
Vasic said his client has no connection to the event, and spoke about the judge:
The attitude and demeanor of the pretrial judge, who will decide on this request today, give me a small glimmer of trust that the court will nevertheless consider the defense’s requests, that is, the defense’s proposals, and will opt for some milder measure, and that perhaps a precedent will be set in the case of my client and he might be given some milder measure today. I still hold out hope for that.
The prosecution has not commented on the hearing in the statements available, and the suspicions it relies on remain the subject of an investigation that, as Delevic put it, is secret.
Why is Crkolez in focus?
Crkolez is one of three connected villages in the municipalities of Istok and Srbica where Serbs stayed to live after the 1999 conflict. From the neighboring village of Suvo Grlo, Kosovo police and judicial authorities arrested four Serbs suspected of war crimes this year, and they have been in detention since March.
The judge’s decision on whether Zikica and Grujica Belosevic will stay in detention, or defend themselves from home or on bail, had not been announced at the time of writing.
