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By:
Ardit Kika
- February 4, 2025 19:13 AM
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The initial trial for war crimes against the accused, Jusuf Shujak, has been postponed to February 13. The trial for the murder of three civilians in Gjakova was prevented from taking place because the accused's defense was not provided with case files translated into Serbian. Nevertheless, witness Dukagjin Dyla revealed the circumstances of how the murders took place in May 1999.
The initial hearing against Jusuf Shujak, the accused of war crimes in Gjakova, has been postponed to February 13, due to his defense not being provided with case files translated into Serbian.
The indictment filed by the Special Prosecution charges Shujak, a Bosniak by nationality, with participating in the murder of three Albanian civilians in Gjakova, as well as the expulsion, destruction and looting of the property of the Dyla family from this municipality, in May 1999.
Prosecutor Kastriot Memaj justified the lack of case files in Serbian by the small number of translators in the prosecutor's office.
The presiding judge, Lutfi Shala, determined that the initial hearing could not be held without the defendant having all the documents in a language he understands.
"As the special prosecutor said, the conditions for today's session to continue have not been met," said Judge Shala.
To follow the initial hearing, one of the witnesses, Dukagjin Dyla, appeared before the Basic Court in Pristina.
And after the hearing was adjourned, he revealed that his father Muhamet Dyla and two others – Isa Lokaj and Cenë Hajdaraj – were killed in his house. He said that he had presented the case to the association he led, Afrim Caka, immediately after the war.
He said that in his house there are still traces of the crime committed by Serbian forces.
"I still have the marks on the guttering at home when they killed them, when they shot those two, Isa and Cena," said witness Dyla.
The mortal remains of the three victims who were killed by Serbian forces, according to the indictment, were found at the Serbian police training site in Batajnica, in 2001 and 2002. Regarding the accused Shujak, the indictment states that he participated in their murder.
"Initially, they ordered the injured and the victims to go out into the yard, but Muhamet Dyla remained inside. Then, as they went out into the yard, a Serbian policeman stopped the victims Cenë Hajdaraj and Isa Lokaj and asked for their ID cards. Then, one of the members of the Serbian forces said, 'Ah, you are KLA' and immediately shot them, killing them both. Another policeman entered the house where Muhamet Dyla was staying," the indictment states.
The document also states that Serbian forces, including the defendant, forced the Dyla family to leave their home at gunpoint, and after killing the three civilians, they looted the house and then burned it down.
Three out of four witnesses, according to the indictment, identified the defendants to the police through photographs. In his statement to the prosecution, the defendant said he was in Plav on the day the victims were killed.
