Balkan Legal News - 3 November 2023

The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 27 October to 02 November 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.

Kosovo – 2 November 2023

A Serb witness told the trial of Kosovo’s ex-President Hashim Thaci and three co-defendants in The Hague that his son was seized by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters in 1999 and disappeared without trace; see here.

Montengro – 1 November 2023

The High Court in Bjello Pole has released from detention the Serbian citizen, Živko Vuksanović, 62 years old, whose extradition Kosovo requested, as he is suspected of war crimes. Likewise, another suspect, who is wanted by Kosovo, has been released by the authorities in Montenegro; see here.

Ukraine – 31 October 2023

Ukrainian prosecutors are continuing to build a full ‘evidentiary base’ for charging Russia with the crime of genocide, Ukraine’s prosecutor general Andriy Kostin told the International Bar Association in Paris on Monday; see here.

Serbia – 30 October 2023

Videos allegedly showing Kosovo Serb opposition politician Oliver Ivanovic being followed before he was killed in 2018 were shown in court during the trial of four people accused of involvement in his murder; see here.

Bosnia – 30 October 2023

Young people growing up in today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina can still suffer from wartime traumas passed on by their mothers or fathers – particularly if the parents were victims of violence, witnessed atrocities or committed war crimes; see here.

North Macedonia – 27 October 2023

The EU and the Western Balkan partners discussed how to support Eurojust in improving the coordination, investigation and prosecution of war crimes and the other most serious crimes committed in Ukraine, as well as the work of the Ukrainian authorities and the International Criminal Court; see here.

Kosovo – 27 October 2023

Former Kosovo Liberation Army unit commander Salih Mustafa told an appeal hearing in The Hague that he feels innocent despite being sentenced to 26 years in prison for war crimes including arbitrary detention, torture and murder; see here.

Croatia – 27 October 2023

In the latest incident in the marathon legal proceedings against Branimir Glavas, the former general shouted angrily at the judge after he was again convicted of ordering the wartime executions and arrests of Serb civilians in 1991; see here.