Balkan Legal News - 13 October 2023

The following media round up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 5 October to 12 October 2023. 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.

Bosnia and Hercegovina – 11 October 2023

Bosnia Charges Wartime Prison Guards with Killing Inmates. Dragan Babic and Milivoje Maletic, who worked at a detention facility in the village of Pribinic in Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, were charged with involvement in killing six prisoners and abusing of dozens of others in 1992, see here.

Bosnia and Hercegovina – 10 October 2023

Bosnian Serb Army company commander Boban Indjic’s 15-year-sentence for his involvement in abducting 20 civilians from a train at Strpci station in 1993 and then killing them was upheld on appeal, see here.

Kosovo – 10 October 2023

A Serbian journalist told the war crimes trial of Kosovo ex-President Hashim Thaci and three co-defendants in The Hague that he was detained and mistreated by the Kosovo Liberation Army in 1998 but didn’t see the accused, see here.

Albania – 10 October 2023

The Court of Appeals in Tirana dismissed a request to extradite wartime guerrilla Dritan Goxhaj to the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, where he is wanted for obstructing justice, and released him from custody, see here.

Bosnia and Hercegovina – 9 October 2023

Wartime Bosnian Serb Army soldier Miroslav Markovic was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his involvement in the killing of at least 67 Bosniak civilians in the village of Lokanj near Zvornik in 1992, see here.

Kosovo – 9 October 2023

Ismet Bahtjari and Sabit Januzi pleaded not guilty to witness intimidation in proceedings against Kosovo Liberation Army ex-guerrillas at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, see here.

Montenegro – 8 October 2023

Law enforcement agencies in Herceg Novi, Montenegro, announced that they have arrested a 48-year-old man from Kosovo with the initials I.B. who is accused of war crimes against the civilian population. Supreme Court of Podgorica announced that it has ordered the measures of detention with the aim of extraditing the individual in question, see here.

Western Balkans – 6 October 2023

House of Lords Research Briefing on the Western Balkans and the Dayton Peace Agreement, see here.