Arrest at the Serbian-Hungarian Border: How Does Serbia’s Interior Ministry Explain the Case?

Serbia’s Interior Ministry announced on August 2 that a person with the initials M.M., born in 1981, had been arrested at the Horgoš border crossing on the border with Hungary. He is suspected of the criminal offense of “war crimes against the civilian population.”

In its statement, the Serbian Interior Ministry disclosed neither the full identity nor the nationality of the person arrested.

Serbian authorities claim that on July 26, 1999, in the village of Kllobukar in Kosovo, the suspect “committed a war crime against two people with the initials T.S. and S.S.”

According to Serbian authorities, the arrest was carried out by members of the War Crimes Investigation Service, in cooperation with the Border Police and the Service for Combating Terrorism.

The suspect has been ordered held for up to 48 hours. Once this period expires, he is expected to be referred, along with the criminal complaint, to Serbia’s Public Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes.

Meanwhile, Kosovo lawyer Arianit Koci announced on Facebook that Serbian authorities had detained Mentor Mustafa, a 44-year-old Kosovo citizen from the village of Jasenovik in the Municipality of Novobërdë.

Koci said Mustafa was detained at around 10:30 p.m. at the border crossing between Hungary and Serbia. At the time, he was traveling by bus from Stuttgart to Kosovo together with his brother, Fejzullah Mustafa.

According to the lawyer, Mustafa’s brother, who was present during the detention, said Serbian authorities had justified the action by citing a damaged identity card.

Koci added that he had already begun working to clarify the circumstances of the detention and to provide Mustafa with legal assistance.

So far, Kosovo’s institutions have not released any information regarding the case.

Radio Free Europe contacted the Government of Kosovo and lawyer Arianit Koci for further details and to verify whether this was the same case. However, it had not received a response by the time the article was published. /RFE