Balkan Legal News – 11 February 2026

The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 04 February to 10 February 2026. 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.

Guernica 37 Balkan Legal News

Kosovo – 10 February 2026 Kosovo Specialist Chambers President Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova has modified Mr. Haxhi Shala’s sentence to allow his release under conditions that will apply for the remainder of his 3-year sentence. President Trendafilova cited signs of rehabilitation, including Mr. Shala’s unprompted letter expressing regret to anyone who may have suffered harm, written independently after a period of reflection. She also noted his positive family relationships, stable living conditions, and extended social network indicating reasonable rehabilitation prospects. While acknowledging the gravity of his offences, she found his letter demonstrated genuine dissociation from the crimes. Mr. Shala’s lead counsel is Toby Cadman of Guernica 37 Chambers. The decision can be found here.

Kosovo – 10 February 2026

During closing statements at trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three others at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, prosecutors insisted the defendants had command responsibility for crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (“KLA”) fighters. The prosecutors also insisted that the defendants often witnessed or participated in mistreatment of detainees. Prosecutor Matt Halling told the court on Tuesday that Thaci did not only make “political or neutral” contributions to the KLA’s war, as the defence has argued. The full article is available here.

Bosnia & Hercegovina – 10 February 2026

Milorad Dodik has been criticised for making derogatory comments about Bosniaks at a press conference on Monday following the weekend’s presidential election in Bosnia’s mainly Serb Republika Srpska entity, which his ally, Sinisa Karan, won. After insulting Bosniaks during the election campaign, Dodik used his speech to describe Muslim Bosniaks from Sarajevo as enemies and “balijas” – a highly derogatory term – and call for the independence of Republika Srpska from Bosnia and Hercegovina. The full article is available here.

Greece – 10 February 2026

The issue of image-based sexual abuse – commonly described as ‘revenge porn’ – is in the spotlight in Greece amid the ongoing trial of two men for posting sexually explicit video of popular Greek influencer and businesswoman Ioanna Touni online. Touni has described the proceedings as a kind of test case. “I am not here just for myself but for every woman who may have gone through something similar and may not have found the strength to stand in court, like me”, she has said. The defendants deny the charges. The full article is available here.

Romania – 9 February 2026

A three-judge panel ruled on Monday that the case against Calin Georgescu can move forward to trial. He is charged with publicly endorsing individuals and ideas associated with Romania’s inter-war fascist movement, an offence under legislation aimed at combating extremism and the rehabilitation of totalitarian ideologies. The ruling followed a closely contested deliberation. Two judges who examined the case last week were unable to reach a unanimous decision, leading to several postponements. Under procedural rules, a third judge was subsequently appointed to resolve the deadlock, ultimately tipping the balance in favour of advancing the case to trial. The full article is available here.

Kosovo – 6 February 2026

Kosovo’s Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned the arrest of a Kosovo Albanian by Serbian police at a border crossing point with Croatia on Thursday. Mitehat Llozhani, a Kosovo Albanian, was apprehended while entering Serbian territory at the Batrovci crossing point. Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Thursday that the Serbian police and the Intelligence Security Agency, BIA, arrested Llozhani on suspicion of war crimes against civilians during Kosovo’s 1998-99 war. The full article is available here.

Moldova – 6 February  2026

The Municipal Court in Chisinau on Friday convicted Aliona Gotco, Ludmila Costenco and Vladimir Harcevnicov of involvement in subversion training in Bosnia and Hercegovina and Serbia in 2024 – part of a Russian-linked scheme to undermine Moldova’s pro-EU orientation. Gotco was sentenced to four years and one month in prison, Costenco to four years, and Harcevnicov to five years and four months. “The sentence can be appealed to the Court of Appeal within 15 days”, the court stated. The full article is available here.

Bosnia & Hercegovina – 5 February 2026

The Bosnian state court announced on Thursday that it has confirmed an indictment charging Mensud Kelestura and Hazim Jasarevic with participating in an artillery attack on civilians in the Podgradina suburb of Vitez on June 10, 1993. The attack killed eight Croat children, while five others were wounded. The youngest victim of the blast was nine-year-old Augustina Grebenar. Her 12-year-old brother Velimir also died. Also among the victims were brother and sister Milan and Sanja Garic, aged 12 and 18, as well as 15-year-olds Dragan Ramljak, Drazenko Cecura and Sanja Krizanovic and ten-year-old Boris Anticevic. The full article is available here.

Greece – 5 February 2026

A Greek armed forces officer was arrested in the early hours of Thursday on espionage charges. He is suspected of passing on “secret information of military importance”, with media claiming that the information concerned NATO and that the recipient was not Turkey. The Greek intelligence service, the EYP, told media that “it was a case that we had been working on for quite some time in cooperation with the HNDGS [Hellenic National Defence General Staff]”. The full article is available here.

Croatia – 5 February 2026

The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague announced on Wednesday that it has denied early release to Milan Martic, one of the wartime political leaders of the Serbs in Croatia, sentenced to 35 years in jail for war crimes. Presiding judge Graciela Gatti Santana said that although Martic had demonstrated in general good behaviour in the Estonian prison where he is serving his sentence, that “cannot on its own demonstrate rehabilitation of a person convicted for some of the most heinous international crimes”. The full article is available here.

Greece – 5 February 2026

Human rights groups have criticised the new bill of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, designed to tackle illegal migration, saying it will make working for refugee-friendly NGOs a “criminal hell”. The bill will be introduced to Greece’s parliament on Wednesday. The government initiative came as the Greece coast was hit by another tragedy, when 15 people from third countries lost their lives after the speedboat they were on collided with a Greek coast guard vessel on February 3, off Chios Island, in the North Aegean. Twenty-four people were rescued and hospitalised. Two coastguards were slightly injured. The full article is available here.

Albania – 4 February 2026

Police in the Albanian port city of Durres said on Wednesday that they have arrested 20 people accused by the prosecution of playing a role in shipping hazardous waste produced by an Albanian steel mill to Thailand. According to the Durres police, an operation was still ongoing on Wednesday for the arrests of 13 other suspects. The arrests came more than a year after the Durres prosecution ordered the seizure of cargo from the ship Moliva, which included 102 containers of suspected dangerous industrial waste. The full article is available here.