Sending court summons to Serbia without direct legal assistance raises questions

The sending of court appearance summonses by Kosovo’s justice institutions to people living in Serbia who are suspected of war crimes has sparked public debate over how their addresses were obtained and who was involved in delivering these documents.

The debate intensified further after claims circulated on social media that Serbia had made its citizens’ personal data available to Kosovo authorities. Following this, Serbia’s Ministry of Justice said that state institutions “have not participated and will not participate in the delivery of these letters.”

The Serbian ministry also added that the competent authorities would examine all the circumstances that, according to it, “have disturbed public opinion.”

Its statement also said that “citizens should know that they are not obliged to treat these letters as valid acts.”

Asked by Radio Free Europe how many summonses had been sent to addresses in Serbia and how they had been delivered, Kosovo’s Special Prosecution replied briefly: “No comment.”

Because Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence, declared in 2008, it also does not recognize its institutions. As a result, there is no direct legal cooperation between the two countries.

This cooperation is carried out through the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX, which, among other things, oversees the functioning of the justice system in the country.

In 2018, EULEX handed over to Kosovo’s local institutions all cases related to war crimes.

However, EULEX told Radio Free Europe that it did not mediate in the recent delivery of summonses for questioning in war crimes cases sent to the addresses of people living in Serbia.

How did the summonses reach addresses in Serbia?

Former Serbian Gendarmerie commander Goran Radosavleviq Guri said at the beginning of June that veterans of the Serbian army and police had received summonses for questioning at their addresses in Serbia.

He said he suspected that “someone from our side” had given Kosovo authorities their personal data.

The United States links Radosavleviq to the killing of the Bytyqi brothers after the end of the war in Kosovo in 1999.

At the same time, claims began spreading on social media that the summonses from Kosovo had reached addresses in Serbia through Vienna.

The acting director of Serbia’s Post Office, Zoran Angjellkoviq, told Radio Free Europe that all postal shipments between Kosovo and Serbia go through international exchange, because Belgrade and Prishtina do not have an agreement on postal cooperation.

“They do not pass only through Vienna, but also through other cities, such as Ljubljana and Budapest. All shipments from Prishtina are sorted in Vienna and then those addressed to Serbia are sent there. The same procedure also applies to letters sent from Belgrade to any place in Kosovo,” Angjellkoviq said.

Millovan Drecun, a lawmaker from the Serbian Progressive Party, the ruling party in Serbia, and a member of the parliamentary Committee on Defense and Internal Affairs, said he does not know how Kosovo’s institutions obtained the addresses of former army and police members.

According to the information he has, “there are many inaccurate and incomplete addresses.”

Drecun recalled that the Brussels Agreement provided for a mechanism for international legal assistance, which is supposed to function through EULEX, but according to him, Kosovo’s institutions bypassed it and “sent the summonses directly to people.”

With European Union mediation, Kosovo and Serbia reached an agreement on mutual legal assistance in 2013, but it has not been implemented in practice.

Blakaj: Without cooperation there can be no justice or reconciliation

Bekim Blakaj, of the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo, told Radio Free Europe that attention should not be focused on the way Kosovo’s institutions delivered summonses for questioning on Serbian territory, but on delivering justice.

According to him, transitional justice in the former Yugoslav region has failed precisely because of the lack of cooperation among the states of the region.

In this context, he described the reaction of Serbia’s Ministry of Justice as “regrettable.”

“Instead of finding a way to cooperate with Kosovo’s institutions or prosecuting these people themselves, there is a call to boycott the summonses for questioning. As a result, not only will the families of war crimes victims be left without justice, but the truth will also be denied. Instead of confronting the past, each side will continue to have its own truth, contrary to that of the other side,” Blakaj said.

He added that the lack of cooperation in prosecuting war crimes also means a failure to acknowledge the victims, which, according to him, makes reconciliation impossible.

“Peace in the region is not possible unless we confront the past and acknowledge the victims and the crimes that were committed,” Blakaj said.

During the war in Kosovo, in the 1998-1999 period, more than 13,000 people were killed, while thousands of others went missing.

Even today, the search continues for around 1,600 missing persons, most of them Albanians.

As part of the dialogue on normalizing relations, Kosovo and Serbia adopted the Declaration on Missing Persons, after which the Joint Commission was also established.

Its aim is to provide political support for the working groups dealing with the identification of possible mass or individual graves through the exchange of information.

Trials and convictions in absentia

Prishtina and Belgrade do not have an extradition agreement.

However, following amendments made to Kosovo’s Criminal Procedure Code in 2022, trials in absentia have been made possible.

Under the law, they may be held only after the prosecution and the court have exhausted all means of securing the presence of the accused.

The first verdict delivered after a trial in absentia was announced in December 2024, in the case of Çedomir Aksiq, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for war crimes against the civilian population committed in the villages of Reçak, Mollopolc and Petrovë.

Earlier, the Kosovo Law Institute (IKD) told Radio Free Europe that Kosovo’s institutions have the right to request the issuance of an Interpol “red notice” for persons convicted in absentia of war crimes.

Because Kosovo is not a member of the international police organization Interpol, such requests are sent through the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK.

However, an Interpol “red notice” is not the same as an arrest warrant.

Each member state applies its own legislation and independently decides whether to act on its basis.

In practice, this means that Serbia, in all likelihood, would not act on a request from Kosovo, because it does not recognize its independence.

But another Interpol member state could arrest and extradite to Kosovo a person convicted in absentia of war crimes.

Under the legislation in force, any person convicted in absentia has the right to a new and unconditional retrial if arrested and extradited to Kosovo.