Balkan Legal News

The following media round up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 7 October to 13 October 2022.

Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates with a focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina, 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.

Serbia – 7 October 2022

Serbia’s Prosecutors Office for Organised Crime has indicted Darko Saric and 14 other people for various criminal acts, among them a plan to kill Nebojsa Joksovic, an associate witness in one of the ongoing processes against Saric. The full article can be found here.

Bosnia and Hercegovina- 7 October 2022

The Bosnian state court confirmed an indictment charging Mile Stojanovic, with participating in the illegal detention of around 150 Bosniak civilians, two of whom died, in the Rajlovac area, near Sarajevo, in 1992. The full article can be found here.

Albania – 12 October 2022

In a speech to the Council of Europe, Albanian premier Edi Rama said that Swiss senator Dick Marty’s report for the Council of Europe back in 2011, which made war crime allegations against Kosovo Liberation Army officers, should be reviewed as “an issue of truth and justice”. The full article can be found here.

Kosovo – 12 October 2022

Kosovo’s government approved legislation to change the criminal code to perpetrators of the offences of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence more harshly after claims that judges were imposing lenient sentences. The full article can be found here.

Serbia – 12 October 2022

The Interior Ministry of Serbia dismissed the accusations by journalists’ associations that it did not properly investigate a death threat against a magazine owner and denied that it concealed important information. The full article can be found here.

Albania – 12 October 2022

The new regulation adopted by Albania’s High Prosecutorial Council has been criticised by experts for its vagueness, lack of transparency and potential limiting role on the media’s freedom to report on judicial processes. The full article can be found here.

Serbia – 13 October 2022

Serbia backed the UN General Assembly resolution censuring Russia for holding “illegal so-called referendums” in parts of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine and then illegally attempting to annex the four regions. The full article can be found here.