Albanian prisoners in Serbia

According to the Fund for Humanitarian Law, since 2003, 19 of the 23 Albanian accused of war crimes have been acquitted of the charges by an all-powerful decision. Two are sentenced to a total of 14 years and long months of imprisonment. One is on trial, the process for one has been suspended, and two others are being held as suspects. Their arrests were made during their travels through Serbia

Not only before 1999, but also after the end of the war in Kosovo, Serbia has arrested Albanians on fabricated charges. Those who ended up in Serbian prisons, after the war were charged with war crimes in Kosovo. According to the Fund for Humanitarian Law, 19 of the 23 Albanian defendants have been acquitted due to lack of evidence. Two are sentenced to a total of 14 years and long months of imprisonment. One is on trial, the process for one has been suspended, and two others are being held as suspects. Their arrests were made while traveling through Serbia, not knowing that this country had a list and they were part of it.

The trips of Kosovo Albanians through Serbia have been misused by this country not only for these cases. Recently, on April 17 of this year, in protest against the recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for Kosovo's membership, the Serbian authorities blocked hundreds of travelers heading towards Kosovo. Many of them were questioned about the events of the war. They were released after international pressure.

On that day, the Serbian police arrested Sadik Durak, a Kosovar and British citizen, as a suspect for war crimes. Currently, Duraku, as well as Hasan Dakaj and Nezir Mehmetaj, who were arrested earlier, are being held in custody under these charges.

The families of the arrested do not receive any support from Kosovo institutions for the engagement of lawyers or any legal assistance in Serbia, while there have been constant reports of violence and inhumane treatment of them. Kosovo never raised this issue at the political level to include the international factor and ensure the pressure on Serbia.  

Concerns of families

Hasan Dakaj's family expresses concerns about his treatment. Gëzim Dakaj says that his brother, who is being detained in the Belgrade Central Prison, had signs of violence when they visited him for the first time. According to family members, the former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army did not dare to speak about the violence.

"They asked him how they are treating you, and he hasn't spoken at all, that is... Do you have anything to eat or drink?" He said the shade is very weak and the treatment is not good. Do you understand? He had a mark on the left side of his eyebrow, the left side of his eyebrow was black, as if he had been punched or slapped, I don't know what to say," said Dakaj. 

Family members have said that the drop in his weight, from 100 to 65 kilograms, during detention is indicative of the treatment he received, while during this period he developed several diseases.

"In the beginning, he was in solitary confinement in a room. Now he himself is the fifth or sixth, as he told his wife, with one Macedonian, one Montenegrin and four Serbs. And when he was alone, I don't know what could have happened to him at that beginning. That he lost a lot of weight in the beginning and they didn't even take him to a doctor, now he started to recover a little bit and has been calling us on the phone for a month now, he calls us every week, at least five to seven minutes talk to him. His health condition so far has not been good. They didn't treat him well, they didn't take him to a doctor, or medication, or anything, but for a month now, he's been talking to us every week on the phone, saying that he's a little better. I don't know, maybe the associations for freedoms and human rights (International Red Cross vj) reacted or what is in question, I don't know, they took him to a doctor, they gave him a little better medication. That is, as he is telling us; that I haven't seen it with my eyes, but according to his words, something is a little better", declared Dakaj. 

They talk to their family members every week, and visit them every month, but as in this case as well, the family members are reluctant to give details for fear that reporting on their condition could be punished. This is confirmed by the brother of Hasan Dakaj, and the fact that some family members of the other arrested have not agreed to speak at all.

"I mean, who are you that the newspapers are doing so much about you and the journalists are talking about you, Prime Minister, and they released it on YouTube and there was more mistreatment there. It's worse to talk to journalists, his situation is more threatened there... The guards, 100% of the prisoners, don't have phones there. Now what we are filming is going out on YouTube right away and the whole world is seeing it on YouTube...Even they were not at fault because maybe the same thing happened to them as it did to my brother", said Gëzim Dakaj. 

The prosecution's suspicions in Serbia are not supported by any witness

The suspicions of the Prosecutor's Office in Serbia about Dakaj are for murder in the Prizren region. Gëzim Dakaj says that his brother has protected himself in silence until now and told the Serbian authorities that they caught the wrong person. As he said, no witness has identified Hasan Dakaj as the perpetrator of the criminal offense, despite the fact that the criminal report of the Serbian police has been active since 2000.

While Kosovo supports the defense of suspects and those accused of war crimes at the Special Court in The Hague, and Serbia financially supports the defense of members of the Serbian forces who are accused in Kosovo, Kosovar citizens who are tried in Serbia do not enjoy such rights.

"From a legal point of view, the Law on Specialized Chambers and the Instruction for financial support issued by the Ministry of Justice refer only to the procedures initiated by the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor of Kosovo. In other words, there is a lack of legal basis in terms of prosecution by Serbia, but as an analogy, it would be necessary to issue either a draft law, or an administrative instruction, a supplement-change, to create a fund to support the defense of these persons and it is necessary and I completely agree that they are discriminated against", said lawyer Xhevdet Smakiqi.

He says that in the case of Hasan Dakaj's family, this would be necessary, since the family is not in a good economic condition.

"For these cases that happened in Belgrade, the Government of Kosovo should create a fund, allocate financial support to the families of those arrested in Serbia, and why not also through the way Serbia does, so that we also create a fund to pay lawyers in Serbia to defend them, because the ultimate goal is to exonerate them from that procedure. As much as it seems illegal, I do not consider that it is recognition of criminal prosecution against them, but as an obligation, because the Republic of Serbia treats them as its own citizens, the accused by the Special Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo and consequently pays their lawyers, it should that the Republic of Kosovo should also pay the lawyers or help the families in any way to engage lawyers, because it is a state obligation to your citizen, especially in an enemy state, why not help him", Smakiqi emphasized.

Need for support

On the other hand, he confirms that support for lawyers of defendants who are suspected or accused of war crimes in Serbia is not formalized by law. However, according to Smakiqi, there are other forms of how families can be supported in case of lack of legal regulation.

"The government, in the name of protecting the families of its citizens and when we are facing Serbia, has other sufficient humanitarian powers to allocate a fund for the family of Hasan Dakaj and refer it to the protection of Hasan Dakaj, for Sadik Durak and Nezir Mehmetajn", Smakiqi said.

Sadik Duraku is also without indictment and in custody. His granddaughter, Qendresa Duraku, in an answer to KOHEN, said that Duraku did not say that he was mistreated.

"His health condition is serious, as he suffers from heart disease and has two stents in place", wrote Duraku in her reply. She also said that Duraku needs discipline during the daily schedule in terms of therapy, food, sleep and stress, and that Duraku "has stated that he is not being given regularly as at the beginning".

Nezir Mehmetaj has been in custody longer than Dakaj and Duraku - since the beginning of 2020. No witness has so far identified him as the perpetrator of the crimes of murder for which he is being accused. The trial, among other things, was prolonged, according to the Fund for Humanitarian Law, also because the Prosecution failed to secure its main witness for this case, who was a child at the time of the commission of the criminal offense.

According to the expert of the Fund for Humanitarian Law, Marina Klajiq, it is too early to talk about the processes against Dakaj and Durak, since they are in the initial phase. However, she expresses her disappointment with the Prosecutor's Office in Serbia, which, according to her, in these cases serves the daily political agendas of the government in Serbia.

"I think that it is symptomatic of how the three ended up in custody and what the charges are, it is more indicative of the arrests and political actions than any single-minded intention to investigate the crime. The Fund for Humanitarian Law has sent nine cases with good evidence, but which they did not take as a basis. So, it is more about arresting people, Albanians, for daily political needs than for serious crimes", said Klajić.

According to the Fund for Humanitarian Law, since 2003, 19 of the 23 Albanian accused of war crimes have been acquitted of the charges by an all-powerful decision. According to lawyer Klajić, criminal non-cooperation for war crimes cases between Serbia and Kosovo is the biggest problem in legal processes for war crimes.

"Exactly the lack of cooperation is the biggest problem, because in reality Serbia for a long time has not had indictments for Kosovo, for the murdered Albanians. The Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes justifies itself that it cannot be based on reports of war crimes, because it does not have access to Albanian witnesses, and on the other hand, it does not establish contact with the judicial authorities of Kosovo and does not find a solution to this problem; in fact, non-cooperation is the biggest problem", she added.

The Ministry of Justice calls them political arrests

Despite statements from family members, according to the Liaison Office of Kosovo in Belgrade, no Kosovo detainee who is in Serbia has reported violence in prison. However, the visits of Ambassador Jetish Jashari, who leads the mission of Kosovo in Serbia, to prisons are seen as important by family members. 

Albert Lekaj with 13 years of imprisonment and Ramadan Maloku with one year and six months of imprisonment are currently sentenced by an omnipotent decision. While the last accused to be released from Serbian prisons was Petrit Dula. He was convicted in 2022 of the first degree and acquitted on April 7, 2023 of the second, since witnesses did not identify him as the person responsible for the ill-treatment.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora in a written response has said that it considers these processes to be a violation, as the cases have no legal connection with Serbia, they are not related to accused from Serbia nor victims from Serbia and are not related to its territory. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, these arrests are completely political and without any legal basis, for which, according to the Ministry, the Liaison Office in Belgrade has notified the embassies of friendly countries in Belgrade. As it is written in a written response of the Ministry "in the diplomatic meetings of Ambassador Jashari with diplomatic representatives accredited in Belgrade" he has "raised the concerns of the state of Kosovo regarding these arbitrary arrests and without any legal basis".