The trial of Cedomir Aksic opened at Pristina Basic Court on Monday – the first time a war crimes trial has been held in the absence of the defendant in Kosovo.
Aksic is accused of murder, causing suffering, injuries and damage to property, as well as ordering the expulsion of civilians. He’s accused of committing the crimes in the municipality of Shtime/Stimlje in 1999.
Judge Violeta Namani said that Aksic is in Serbia but the court could not establish his exact address. The court asked via the EU’s office in Pristina, on the basis of an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia on mutual legal assistance, for him to be questioned in Serbia, but did not receive a response.
According to Kosovo law, the defendant’s lawyer has 30 days to file a motion opposing the evidence and requesting the dismissal of the indictment.
The prosecution alleges that Aksic, together with a criminal enterprise involving other, unknown individuals, ordered the expulsion of local residents from the municipality of Shtime/Stimlje and the surrounding villages of Mollopolc, Recak and Petrove in April 1999.
The accused also participated in executions and the destruction of the houses of four brothers, Ruzhdi, Sadri, Rexhep and Hamdi Jashari, causing damage worth 300,000 euros, the indictment alleges.
Prosecutors further claim that on May 13-14, 1999, in the village of Petrove in the Shtime/Stimlje municipality, Aksic shot dead an ethnic Albanian man, Halil Hysenaj.
On January 15, 1999, Aksic, together with the group, also participated in the murder of several individuals during the attacks on Albanian civilians in the village of Recak, the indictment claims.
A man called Hajriz Brahimi was trying to escape when Aksic and the other unknown individuals shot and killed him. They also killed brothers Haki, Sabri and Arif Murati, and then Ahmet Mustafa, Sadik Mujota and his daughter Hanumshahe Mujota, it is alleged.
Another victim, Skender Halili, was shot in the leg and then, after he fell, was shot again to ensure that his death. Another resident of the village, Mehmet Mustafa, was killed in the yard of his house, the indictment claims.
This year, Kosovo special prosecution has filed six indictments charging suspects in absentia, four of which were related to sexual abuses during the war.
In 2019, in an attempt to boost prosecutions of war crimes, the Kosovo Assembly adopted an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code to allow trials in absentia in cases involving the offences against international humanitarian law and international criminal law that were committed between January 1990 and June 1999.
The amendments were mostly intended to deal with cases of war crimes committed during the 1998-99 conflict.
According to the amendments, the court can decide to continue with someone’s trial in their absence if all judicial means to locate the defendant have been exhausted.
Source : Balkan Insight
