Women still waiting for justice years after killings and disappearances

Fifteen years after Diana Kastrati was killed, authorities filed an indictment in absentia in the case. Meanwhile, Mirjeta Zeka-Shabani has been missing for seven years, and the investigation into her fate has been suspended since 2023.

These are two of five cases involving the killing or disappearance of women in Kosovo examined by Radio Free Europe to understand why justice has been delayed, how investigations and trials have progressed, and whether officials have been held accountable when institutions were found to have failed to protect women.

Mirjeta Zeka-Shabani was last seen in late March 2019 at her home in Sfaracak, Vushtrri. At the time, the 41-year-old lived with her husband in Germany.

Her brother reported her missing about four months later, after he had been unable to contact either his sister or her husband. Until then, he had believed the couple had returned to Germany the day after their March visit.

Prosecutors are treating the case as aggravated murder, but the investigation has been suspended since July 2023. Mirjeta’s husband has been questioned as a suspect but has never been arrested.

The Basic Prosecution Office in Mitrovica told Radio Free Europe (RFE) that proceedings remain suspended because of “objective circumstances that temporarily prevent the investigation from proceeding.”

According to the family’s lawyer, Amer Alija, the investigation was suspended on the grounds that several witnesses living outside Kosovo still need to be questioned.

RFE has learned that they are several female relatives of the victim’s husband who have been placed on a border stop list and cannot enter Kosovo without being subject to that measure.

Alija says the case has been marked by institutional negligence and wants another prosecution office to take it over and pursue it more quickly and effectively.

“They should take Mirjeta Zeka’s case from the Basic Prosecution Office in Mitrovica, transfer it to Pristina, appoint a new prosecutor, form an investigative team and reopen the investigation. I believe that, with an effective investigation, this case will be solved,” he told RFE.

The case of Donjeta Pajazitaj, who was killed in November 2015 in Strellc, Deçan, also went through several levels of the courts. On April 6, 2023, the Supreme Court definitively acquitted her cousin, Naser Pajazitaj.

Now, 11 years after the killing, no one has been arrested or convicted in the case.

After the acquittal, the prosecutor handling the case sent a piece of evidence to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States for examination because it could not be analyzed in Turkey.

The Basic Prosecution Office in Peja told Radio Free Europe that the examination results have not yet arrived.

“Once the results are received, the prosecutor handling the case will analyze them and, depending on their content and significance, take further action,” the prosecution office said in its response.

The FBI declined to comment to RFE on the matter.

For Donjeta’s family, the long wait for answers has become another burden. Her brother, Shkëlqim Pajazitaj, says more than two years have passed since they were told a video recording had been sent to the FBI for examination, but the family has still received no result.

“It seems Donjeta’s case has been completely forgotten by the relevant institutions,” he told Radio Free Europe.

He says the family feels powerless to keep demanding answers from the institutions. Pajazitaj also questions how police handled his sister’s disappearance; her body was found six weeks later.

“If the Deçan police had acted with more urgency at the time, perhaps Donjeta would still be alive today,” he told RFE.

More than 15 years after Diana Kastrati was killed in Pristina, court proceedings in the case have begun.

On October 22, 2026, the Basic Prosecution Office in Pristina filed an indictment in absentia against Adnon Jashari, Diana’s former partner, with whom she had lived.

Jashari is accused of shooting Diana dead on May 18, 2011. He is also charged with unauthorized ownership, control or possession of weapons.

Diana’s family sees the start of a trial in absentia, while Jashari has been a fugitive for 15 years, as a step forward, but not the end of their search for justice.

The family’s lawyer, Korab Sejdiu, asks whether state institutions have used every legal and institutional means available to bring the accused to justice.

“After 15 years, we have the right to ask not only what has been done, but whether everything possible has been done to bring the accused to justice,” Sejdiu told RFE.

For a long time, the proceedings were also hampered by the inability to extradite Jashari from Spain, a country that does not recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Diana Kastrati was 27 when she was killed by her former partner. They had a daughter, and Diana had moved into her parents’ home several months earlier.

In 2013, her parents took the case to the Constitutional Court. The court found that the failure of the court in Pristina to act had violated Diana’s right to life and her right to effective legal remedies.

Nevertheless, Sejdiu says those proceedings cannot replace criminal accountability or the need for the case to end with a court judgment.

Sebahate Morina’s case is another example of institutional failure. She was killed by her former husband more than five years ago, just a few months after her protection order had expired.

In March 2023, two years after the killing, the Constitutional Court concluded that the Graçanica police and the Basic Prosecution Office in Pristina had failed to fulfill their obligation to protect Sebahate’s life.

According to the judgment, the institutions had not responded in time, had not carried out a proper risk assessment and had not taken preventive measures, even though they knew or should have known that her life was in danger.

Following the Constitutional Court’s decision, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the prosecutor handling the case. She was penalized with a 30 percent pay cut for one year.

Fatmir Morina, Sebahate’s brother, considers the penalty inadequate given the consequences of the negligence that was identified.

“Besides missing [Sebahate], we are also left with the pain of knowing that justice was not done as it should have been. The prosecutor handling the case did not receive the punishment she deserved; she was punished only with a 30 percent pay cut for one year. That, in other words, was the punishment for the loss of a life,” he said.

The family is also dissatisfied that no police officer was punished or dismissed over the way the case was handled.

“It is terrible to ask the police for help and get no response. It is terrible to have nowhere to turn when you are in trouble, especially when your life is being threatened,” Morina said. “There must be not only dismissals, but also punishments proportionate to the gravity of their failings.”

Arrita Rezniqi of the Kosovo Law Institute (KLI) says the mere existence of disciplinary mechanisms or the opening of an investigation does not amount to accountability if the proceedings do not result in concrete consequences.

In her view, the penalty imposed on the prosecutor in Sebahate Morina’s case was insufficient and did not match the gravity of the violations or their consequences.

“The absence of consequences for proven negligence, as well as inadequate measures, directly contributes to repeated failures. It gives officials the impression that failing to fulfill their obligations to victims of domestic violence can pass without serious legal or professional consequences,” Rezniqi told RFE.

Rezniqi believes the problem lies not only in a lack of punitive mechanisms, but also in the attitude of some officials toward women seeking protection.

“Certain officials see the woman reporting violence as the problem, question her demand for justice and downplay the abuser’s responsibility. When actions and failures to act arising from this mindset are not investigated or punished, these practices are reinforced and continue to undermine women’s safety,” she said.

Three days before she was killed, Arlinda Zekaj sent a complaint to Lumturije Vuçetaj, the chief prosecutor of the Basic Prosecution Office in Peja. In it, she objected to how the institutions had handled her case.

Zekaj called for urgent measures against officials who, she said, had neglected their official duties. She also warned that her life was in danger, but three days later she was killed in her home in Vitomiricë, Peja.

The suspect in her killing is her brother-in-law. Police officers accompanied him to her home, and ten minutes later he became a suspect in the crime. He is currently in pretrial detention.

After the killing, 11 police officers were suspended. The director-general of the Kosovo Police, Gazmend Hoxha, resigned, while Peja’s chief prosecutor and the prosecutor handling the case were also suspended.

Kosovo’s Assembly has established a parliamentary investigative committee to examine the institutions’ actions and their responsibility in the case. Government representatives have repeatedly called for those who ignored Zekaj’s pleas for help to face not only disciplinary measures but also steps toward criminal accountability.

Radio Free Europe contacted the Kosovo Police Inspectorate, the Prosecutorial Council and the Judicial Council for information on investigations and disciplinary measures against officials in similar cases.

Only the Judicial Council responded. It said that, from 2021 to the present, it has received no requests to initiate disciplinary investigations in such cases. The council also explained that records of disciplinary investigations or sanctions are deleted after five years, except when an intentional violation of the law or a serious criminal offense is established.

As families continue to seek answers year after year, some cases involving women killed or missing in Kosovo remain without a clear resolution.