Trial in absentia: four of 21 accused of expelling Albanians are reported dead

Four of the 21 people accused of the forced expulsion of over 800,000 Albanian civilians from Kosovo during the 1998–99 war are reported to be no longer alive. But this has not yet been confirmed by any official document for the trial-in-absentia proceedings.

This was announced at the initial hearing by Kosovo’s Special Prosecutor, Atdhe Dema, who did not name which defendants he was referring to. He meanwhile confirmed that the case against the war-crimes suspects was finalized after three years of investigation.

“After three years of investigation, the Special Prosecution has submitted to the court the content of the trial in absentia. Four of them are reported to have passed away. However, to this day we have not received any official document issued by the competent institutions,” he said.

In the proceedings, which are being held in absentia, 20 of the court-appointed defense lawyers were in favor of continuing the hearing in absentia — except lawyer Shkumbin Asllani.

He requested that his client be notified of the trial.

“Apart from the prosecution’s actions regarding the security of the defendants, I need to verify whether the conditions of Article 303 have been fully met — that is, whether the obligations for the effective notification of my client regarding the trial have been fulfilled,” he said.

Meanwhile, the president of the trial panel, Medie Bytyqi, said the Court had made all legal efforts to secure the accused, but because their presence had been made impossible, it concluded that a trial in absentia could proceed.

She said the court was convinced that sufficient efforts had been made to secure the defendants in this case.

“The Court has called on the accused to surrender. As of this moment we have no information from the police about their whereabouts. The Court takes into account that this is a criminal offense of war crimes,” she said.

Meanwhile, because the hearing started one hour later than scheduled, lawyer Albana Zogiani was fined one thousand euros as the one who caused the delay.

“The Court, in accordance with the provisions of the penal code, issues this decision — a fine of 1,000 is imposed on lawyer Albana Zogiani for the delay in the hearing, despite the fact that she had been notified that the hearing would continue at 9:30. She arrived late at 10:30,” said the judge.

The 21 people accused by the Special Prosecution are charged that during the months of January–June 1999, during the armed conflict and war in Kosovo, they exercised effective authority and control over the forces operating under their responsibility.

According to the indictment, they were aware and had at their disposal information, operational reports, internal communications, and presence in the zones sufficient to know that forces under their command or control were carrying out actions that included the destruction of property, the burning of houses and civilian infrastructure, persecution and arbitrary detention of persons on ethnic grounds, including armed attacks on villages and towns inhabited by Albanian civilians with the aim of forcible displacement.

According to the indictment, these actions by the accused ultimately resulted in the organization of forced columns of Albanian civilians with the aim of expelling them from Kosovo toward the state borders, in the direction of the Republic of Albania and Macedonia — a total of about 862,979 expelled civilians.

According to the indictment, the defendants did not take the necessary and reasonable measures within their competence and responsibility to prevent the commission of these acts, to stop the perpetrators, or to report the unlawful acts to the relevant authorities. According to the indictment, the aforementioned defendants are accused of committing the criminal offense of war crimes against the civilian population.

The accused are: Zlatomir Peshiq, Mladen Cirkoviq, Radomir Markoviq, Dushko Adamoviq, Obrad Stevanoviq, Zhivko Trajkoviq, Goran Radosavljeviq, Bogoljub Janiçeviq, Sllavisha Ivanoviq, Boshko Vukiqeviq, Sreten Popoviq, Nikolla Petroviq, Krsman Jeliq, Ljubisha Stojimiroviq, Bozhidar Deliq, Radojko Stefanoviq, Dragan Zhivanoviq, Millosh Doshan, Ljubinko Cvetiq, Bozhidar Filiq and Millovan Kovaçeviq.