Kosovo’s Special Prosecution announced on Wednesday that it has filed an indictment to Pristina Basic Court charging a Serb who has dual citizenship of Kosovo and Serbia with committing war crimes during the Kosovo war in 1999.
“The defendant is accused of participating in the murder of 109 prisoners and the injuring of 108 other prisoners, all of Albanian nationality [ethnicity], on May 22, 1999 [in what is known as] the ‘Dubrava Massacre’,” the prosecution’s announcement said.
The suspect, who was only identified by his initials, G.M., is currently in detention.
He was arrested by the Kosovo police in December last year on suspicion of involvement in the massacre at the prison in Peja/Pec in May 1999.
A few days before the massacre, NATO bombed the jail, killing several prisoners in one of its airstrikes aimed at ending the Kosovo war and ending Serbia’s campaign of repression against Kosovo Albanians. Serbian security personnel then assembled hundreds of inmates in the yard of the jail and opened fire on them.
It has been estimated that between 90 and 130 prisoners were killed and around 200 others injured.
The prosecution said on Wednesday that it has managed to secure enough evidence to prove that G.M., “in collaboration with other members of the Serbian police and military forces, participated in and contributed to committing the criminal violation with which he is being charged”.
“Investigations into other suspects are continuing in absentia, due to them being unreachable for the judicial authorities,” the prosecution added.