Balkan Legal News – 22 January 2026

The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 15 January to 20 January 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

Albania – 20 January 2026

Albania’s Prime Minister, Edi Rama said on Tuesday that he had accepted US President Donald Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace, sent also to a couple of dozen other countries. In a letter sent to Trump and published on X, it was “both a privilege and an honour to express my full readiness to contribute to this important endeavour and to participate fully in a joint effort that seeks to translate vision into action”, Rama said. The full article is available here.

Kosovo – 20 January 2026

Boban Tonic entered a not guilty plea at Pristina Basic court on Tuesday, where he is on trial for allegedly committing war crimes against ethnic Albanian prisoners held in the Lipljan/Ljipjane prison. Kosovo’s Special Prosecution alleges that Tonic, 59, while serving as a prison guard during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo, deliberately violated the rules of international law, by “systematically mistreating Albanian prisoners, torturing them inhumanely with various means such as rubber batons, metal rods, kicks and punches, and even suffocation, causing them bodily harm”. The full article is available here.

Serbia – 20 January 2026

The Association of Independent Electronic Media, ANEM, has urged the Serbian prosecution to investigate the suspension of the social media profiles of a number of government-critical Serbian media outlets in recent days.  On Tuesday, the ANEM said that some media outlets had received an email sent from the ProtonMail account, saying that the senders are claiming responsibility for “turning off social media profiles”. The alleged senders linked their action to their hostile reporting about Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic. The full article is available here.

Bulgaria – 19 January 2026

Bulgaria’s President, Rumen Radev, announced on Monday that he will resign. Calling the existing political system “a vicious model of governing”, Radev stopped short of saying whether he would form a new party. “The battle for the future of the fatherland is ahead of us and I believe that we will fight it together with all of you … We are ready. We can and we will succeed!” he said. Given Radev’s history as a critic of sanctions against Russia, of aid to Ukraine, and his increasingly nationalistic tone, it would likely rely on an EU-sceptic and populist agenda. The full article is available here.

Serbia – 19 January 2026

The Hungarian MOL Group is to buy the majority of shares in Oil Industry of Serbia, NIS, from Russian company Gazprom Neft, the company said on Monday. In a press release MOL said it had signed a binding Heads of Agreement with Gazprom Neft to acquire its 56.15-per-cent stake in NIS. “Once the transaction is completed, MOL will assume significant shareholder responsibilities and control rights in the company operating Serbia’s only refinery, this way further strengthening its presence in the Central and Southeastern European energy market”, the press release said. The full article is available here.

Kosovo – 19 January 2026

The Kosovo Central Election Commission, CEC, on Monday decided to recount votes cast at all polling stations in all 28 municipalities, after a recount in ten municipalities, which included 36 per cent of the 2,557 ballot boxes, showed manipulation of the votes cast for MP candidates in the first count. Kreshnik Radoniqi, head of the CEC, explained that the recount in ten municipalities, decided on January 13, had revealed “possible errors in the registration of candidates’ votes and the addition of votes as a result of the re-evaluation of invalid ballots, and in certain polling stations, larger changes are evident for some candidates”. The full article is available here.

Kosovo – 16 January 2026

In the northern Kosovo town of North Mitrovica, at the site of Oliver Ivanovic’s assassination, family members, friends and political allies marked the eighth anniversary of his death by lighting candles on Friday.  Four people have been convicted of involvement in his death but those who ordered and carried out the murder have never been held accountable. The full article is available here.

Greece – 16 January 2026

Lawyers and human rights organisations have welcomed Thursday’s verdict by a Greek court, which acquitted 24 humanitarian workers, putting an end to a judicial saga that started seven years ago. The case unfolded during the 2015-2018 refugee crisis, when the Greek island of Lesbos in the South Aegean was at the epicentre of migration flows. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in 2015 alone, 856,723 people arrived in Greece by sea and 4,907 by land. The full article is available here.

Romania – 16 January 2026

Around 10,000 people took part on Thursday night in two demonstrations in central Bucharest, protesting against a law adopted last year that criminalises the initiation of, support for or participation in fascist, racist and xenophobic movements. The rallies were organised by the ultra-nationalist Conservative Action Party, AC, and were joined by supporters of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians, AUR. The full article is available here

Bosnia & Hercegovina – 15 January 2025

The Court of Bosnia and Hercegovina announced on Thursday that it has confirmed the indictment of four members of the 7th Muslim Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina for war crimes committed against Croat and Serb civilians held in the basement of the Music School in Zenica in 1993.  The indictment charges Nesib Talic, Jusuf Karalic, Nasid Delalic and Sabahudin Sarajlic.  According to the indictment, the crimes were committed between January and late March 1993, when fighting was under way between the Croatian Defence Council and the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Zenica area. The full article is available here.