Balkan Legal News – 4 February 2026

The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 27 January to 3 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 – 3 February 2026

Kosovo’s Election Complaints and Appeals Panel, ECAP on Tuesday overturned the Central Election Commission’s decision not to authorise the results achieved by the Srpska Lista party and its candidates in the December 28 general elections. “The ECAP does not agree with the CEC’s decision to not announce the final results of parliamentary elections for Srpska Lista and its candidates. The ECAP assesses that this decision is unjustified and in contradiction with legal provisions”, it said in its ruling. The full article is available here.

Kosovo – 3 February 2026

The Pristina Basic Court on Tuesday sentenced Srdjan Lazovic, a former reservist member of the Yugoslav Army, to 12 years and six months in prison for war crimes against civilians in Panorc, a village in Kosovo’s central municipality of Malisheve/Malisevo, during the 1998-99 war. He will also have to pay court expenses of 200 euros and another 100 euros into a victims’ fund. Lazovic has been in detention since June 2024, time which will be deducted from his sentence. He pleaded not guilty and the first-instance verdict can be appealed. The full article is available here.

Kosovo – 2 February 2026

After a retrial, Pristina Basic Court on Monday sentenced Muhamet Alidemaj, a former Serbian policeman, to 13 years’ imprisonment for participating in a massacre at Izbice during the Kosovo war in March 1999. Alidemaj had pleaded not guilty. In December 2025, he told the court: “I am one million per cent not guilty”. In the first verdict on the case, on 12 July 2024, Alidemaj also similarly said that he was “not 100 per cent but 1,000 per cent” not guilty of the charges, claiming he had not even been in Kosovo from September 1998 to 2021. The full article is available here.

Serbia – 30 January 2026

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday signed a set of legal amendments that EU, Serbian lawyers and anti-graft campaigners have warned will weaken the role of the Organised Crime Prosecutor’s Office. The legislative changes aim to strengthen the role of specific high-ranking prosecutors, but also to adapt the Serbian justice system to the needs of Expo 2027, a showpiece government project that has attracted controversy. The Organised Crime Prosecutor’s Office warned on 19 January, before the adoption of the changes, that the legal amendments mean it will be left without a significant number of public prosecutors. The full article is available here.

Serbia – 29 January 2026

The US private equity firm Carlyle Group may buy most of the foreign assets of Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil, in a move which will affect several countries in the Balkans, where Lukoil has major holdings and handles most of the oil supply.   “The company is also continuing negotiations with other potential buyers”, a statement from Lukoil on Thursday said. The full article is available here.

  Western Balkans – 28 January 2026

The European Commission has announced a EUR 171 million support package to enhance infrastructure and boost private sector growth in the Western Balkans. This funding includes contributions from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA III) for a project in Bosnia and Hercegovina, as well as support from the Reform and Growth Facility (RGF) and the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) bilateral donors for projects in Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. The full article is available here.

Montenegro – 28 January 2026

Former Supreme Court president Vesna Medenica was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a first-instance ruling by the High Court in Podgorica, marking one of the most significant corruption verdicts involving the Montenegrin judiciary to date. Her son, Milos Medenica, was also sentenced to 10 years in jail. Medenica was arrested in April 2022 after media published transcripts of encrypted messages exchanged vis the Sky ECC communications app between her son and a police officer, Darko Lalovic, allegedly arranging cocaine purchases and cigarette smuggling through the Adriatic port of Bar. The full article is available here.

Bosnia & Hercegovina – 27 January 2026

Former detainees on Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary of the closing of the notorious Silos detention camp at a commemoration at the site of the wartime camp in Tarcin, a village west of the capital Sarajevo. Around 500 Serb civilians were detained at the Silos camp at various times, some of them for as many as 1,334 days. Around 90 Croat detainees were also held at the camp. Prisoners were held in inhumane and often overcrowded concrete cells, and were beaten and abused. They were also made to do forced labour on the front lines, where they were also mistreated. The full article is available here.