Balkan Legal News - 5 January 2024

The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 28 December 2023 to 4 December 2024. 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.

Greece - 4 January 2024

New National Cybersecurity Authority is to be set up following the wave of attacks targeting public bodies in Greece last year and the year before; see here.

Croatia - 4 January 2024

Zeljko Badza, a wartime Serb militiaman who moved to Australia, was charged with killing seven civilians in 1991 including the grandfather of Croatian national football team captain Luka Modric; see here.

Serbia - 4 January 2024

Former Bosnian Serb Army soldier Dalibor Krstovic, convicted of raping a female captive in Kalinovik during the Bosnian war in August 1992, had his sentence reduced to five years in prison on appeal; see here.

Bosnia - 3 January 2024

In a series of indictments announced over the New Year period, 15 suspects were charged with various wartime crimes including attacks on villages that left dozens of Bosniaks and Croats dead and executing hundreds of men from Srebrenica; see here.

Albania - 30 December 2023

After Albania's parliament lifted his immunity earlier this week, courts accepted a prosecution request for the former PM to be placed under house arrest; see here.

Montenegro - 29 December 2023

The real estate sector has benefited from multi-million purchases by wealthy foreigners using digital money in Montenegro, where dealings in cryptocurrencies are not yet legally regulated and the government is seen as crypto-friendly; see here.

Bosnia - 30 December 2023

The separatist-minded leader of the mostly ethnic Serb part of Bosnia-Herzegovina has repeated his threat to rip the country apart and wreak new havoc on the Balkans if the international community further strengthens multiethnic institutions; see here.

Kosovo - 28 December 2023

Dick Marty, a Swiss senator who authored a Council of Europe report on alleged violations by Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas that led to the establishment of the Hague-based Specialist Chambers war crimes court, has died; see here.