Balkan Legal News - 01 August 2024
- Aug 2, 2024
- 2 min read
The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 25 July 2024 to 1 August 2024. Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates with a focus on Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Should you wish to contribute or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Ned Vucijak at nenadv@guernica37.com for consideration.
Montenegro - 1 August 2024
Terraform Labs co-founder and fraudster Do Kwon is once again set to be extradited from Montenegro to his native South Korea after a ruling from the Balkan nation’s court of appeals Thursday; see here.
Croatia - 1 August 2024
First-hand accounts gathered by BIRN indicate that children in state care in Croatia are being hospitalised for psychiatric treatment unnecessarily and sometimes as a disciplinary tactic; see here.
Kosovo - 31 July 2024
Journalists and media advocates are concerned that a new law in Kosovo could give the government greater control. The new law seeks to license online media, give the Independent Media Commission, or IMC, power to monitor news websites, and increase the number of politically appointed members of the body; see here.
Croatia - 30 July 2024
Croatia, Greece and Hungary specifically “did not effectively investigate incidents of ill treatment and loss of life during border management,” an EU probe found; see here.
North Macedonia - 30 July 2024
North Macedonia expressed bemusement after Venezuela’s regime claimed hackers from the Balkan country tried to manipulate the results of Sunday's disputed election; see here.
Bulgaria - 30 July 2024
A man who sexually abused a teenage girl in Rotherham and then fled the UK has finally been convicted. Shahid Hussain, 48, was extradited from Bulgaria before being found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court of one count of indecent assault. The National Crime Agency says the offence relates to 2003, when Hussain's victim was just 14; see here.
Bosnia - 29 July 2024
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals for a third time rejected the early release request of the wartime leader of a Bosnian Serb Army reconnaissance unit who was sentenced to 28 years in prison for multiple rapes and enslavement in Foca; see here.
Kosovo - 29 July 2024
A Kosovo court in a retrial on Monday sentenced Dardan Krivaca to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of an 18-year-old woman in August 2021, while his accomplice got 15 years; see here.
Serbia - 28 July 2024
Comment - Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs doesn’t appear to be teaching its employees the old adage that it is sometimes better to keep one’s mouth shut and let people think you’re stupid than speak and remove all doubt; see here.
Bosnia - 26 July 2024
Comment - As a senator, Joe Biden was a fierce advocate for Bosnia’s right to defend itself in the early 1990s, but expectations that he would get more involved to drive the country forward once in the White House were misplaced; see here.
Croatia - 25 July 2024
Croatia has declared three top Montenegrin government officials persona non grata amid a diplomatic row over a death camp operated by the pro-Nazi Croatian government during World War II; see here.
