Miljojko Djordjevic Pleads Not Guilty in Pristina Court
The former reserve police commander in Zvecan answered a war crimes indictment, and the same day the trial of Pantic and Zaric for crimes in Istok resumed in Pristina.
Miljojko Djordjevic of North Mitrovica pleaded not guilty on Monday, November 2, before the Special Department of the Basic Court in Pristina to an indictment for a war crime against the civilian population in the municipality of Zvecan. According to Kosovo Online, the plea came after the indictment was read at a preparatory hearing. The same day, the same court resumed the trial of Momir Pantic and Zarko Zaric for crimes in the municipality of Istok.
What is Miljojko Djordjevic charged with?
The Kosovo Specialist Prosecution charges Djordjevic with committing a war crime against civilians in 1998 and 1999, while he was commander of a reserve police unit in Zvecan. Kosovo Online reports that the indictment was filed on October 11, 2026, while the Albanian portal Indeksonline gives October 12 as the date. The sources do not explain the one-day gap.
According to Kosovo Online, the indictment covers murder and torture. Indeksonline lists murder, inhumane treatment, intimidation, destruction of property, mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing, and adds that Djordjevic is charged as a co-perpetrator with members of the Serbian police forces, on grounds of individual and command responsibility. The prosecution relies on Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, and on Articles 4 and 5 of the Additional Protocol II of June 8, 1977. Djordjevic was arrested in North Mitrovica on May 15, 2025, and has been in detention since. He is presumed innocent until a final verdict.
Why did the hearing take place only now?
The preparatory hearing was scheduled for October 23 but was postponed because the defense lawyers had not received the case files. Defense counsel Predrag Miljkovic said then that this had become routine:
“For who knows which time, this is happening: the defense receives the case files either at the hearing itself or after the defense or the court insists. It has become almost the rule rather than the exception that the case files are received after the preparatory hearing is held.”
Miljkovic explained that he asked for a postponement because, if the defense received the files only after the plea, it would, in his words, “spend” its 30-day deadline “on something we are not obliged to do under the law.” Once he received the files, he noticed that the last investigative action was taken on February 3, 2026. According to him, Djordjevic has been in detention for “almost 17 and a half months,” while the law allows up to 18 months before an indictment is filed. The next hearing was scheduled for November 2, the day the plea was entered.
How did the trial of Pantic and Zaric go?
The Basic Court in Pristina resumed the trial of Momir Pantic, the former chief of the police station in Istok, and former police officer Zarko Zaric. Both are charged with a war crime against the civilian population in the municipality of Istok in 1998 and 1999. Three witnesses were heard, among them Bekim Bljakaj, director of the Humanitarian Law Fund.
Witness Haki Pepaj confirmed the statement he gave to the police, which was read out by attorney Dejan Vasic. He then said that Zaric and Pantic carried out killings in 1997:
“Nobody came from Serbia. They did it. Pantic was the commander of the police station, and Zaric lived near my brother’s house, he did all sorts of things.”
Pepaj added that he told the police the same thing when he was questioned. The trial panel and the prosecution had no questions for him, and the same went for another witness who confirmed a statement given to the police. Zaric asked the court to have the statements of four witnesses read out because, as he put it, they had given the police and the prosecution different accounts.
The Kosovo Specialist Prosecution filed the indictment against Pantic and Zaric on September 1, 2024. Pantic was arrested in August 2023 at the Merdare crossing, and Zaric in the village of Ljubozda near Istok. Both have been in detention since their arrests, and in April 2026 the Supreme Court of Kosovo rejected their requests for protection of legality and upheld the detention. The trial continues on November 26 and 27.
