The Basic Court in Pristina has ruled that the judicial process for the Meja massacre will proceed without the presence of the 53 defendants, most of whom are former members of Serbian military and security structures. They are accused of killing hundreds of Albanian civilians and forcibly expelling the population during the war in Kosovo.
Të lidhura
None found
The decision was made at the repeated initial hearing, at which none of the defendants was present in the courtroom. The case concerns crimes committed in April 1999 in Meja and the surrounding villages, which are considered among the most serious events of the war.
According to the presiding judge, despite arrest warrants and the efforts undertaken, it was not possible to secure the presence of the defendants. “In the present case, reasonable efforts were made to notify the aforementioned defendants of the initial hearing and to secure their presence. Therefore, pursuant to Article 303, paragraph 4, of the Criminal Procedure Code, the court issues a ruling that the trial be held in absentia against the aforementioned defendants, after the court assessed that the legal conditions under Article 303, paragraphs 7 and 8, of the Criminal Procedure Code had been met,” said Violeta Namani-Hajra, a judge at the Basic Court.
The decision came after a request from the Court of Appeals, which had sought verification of the actions taken to secure the defendants. The Special Prosecution considers that the legal conditions for continuing the proceedings in absentia have been met.
“We stand by the explanation provided at the previous hearing. Regarding the role of the Prosecution, we consider that the legal conditions for filing the indictment in absentia have been met,” said Ilir Morina, a war crimes prosecutor at the Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo.
The indictment attributes the organization and execution of the operation to a joint Serbian criminal structure. In Meja alone, 270 unarmed civilians were killed, while hundreds of others were executed in the surrounding villages. In an effort to conceal the crimes, many of the bodies were transported to Serbia, where years later they were discovered in the mass graves of Batajnica.
The defense has been given 30 days to challenge the evidence. However, for the victims’ families, justice remains delayed by more than two decades, while 13 people killed in the massacre are still listed as missing.
