Serbia has arrested a person suspected of war crimes against the civilian population in Kosovo in 1999, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said.
The arrested man, who has been sentenced to one month in pre-trial detention, has been identified with the initials DM, 47 years old. According to Dacic, he was arrested at the Batrovci border crossing.
"There are well-founded suspicions that he committed a criminal offense against the civilian population, to the detriment of members of two families, during June 1999, in the village of Bec, in the municipality of Gjakova," Dacic said in a statement.
Although Dacic identified the arrested person only by his initials, a day earlier, Kosovo lawyer Arianit Koci announced that Serbian authorities had detained Dugagjin Maxhuni from Beci, Gjakova, aged 47.
According to him, he was stopped at the border between Serbia and Croatia, and after several hours of verification, his family was informed that he had been transferred to Belgrade and that the procedures against him were continuing.
Dacic said that DM was initially placed under 48-hour detention and the criminal report against him was then sent to the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office.
"Based on the decision of the pre-trial judge of the High Court in Belgrade - War Crimes Department, he has been ordered to be detained for 30 days," Dacic said.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has reached out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora with questions regarding this case, but has not yet received a response.
Serbia has repeatedly arrested Kosovo citizens on charges of war crimes in Kosovo in 1998-99.
Radio Free Europe asked the Kosovo Liberation Army Veterans Organization whether Dugagjin Maxhuni was on its lists, but the organization said that he is on the list of persons who enjoy veteran status.
In Kosovo, too, dozens of Serbs have been arrested in recent years on suspicion of war crimes in Kosovo, and some cases have ended in convictions.
This is the second arrest in August that Serbia has made for alleged war crimes in Kosovo. On August 2, a man was arrested on the border between Serbia and Hungary.
Lawyer Koci said that the case involved Kosovo citizen Mentor Mustafa, 44 years old from Novobërde. He has been sentenced to one month in pre-trial detention. /Taken from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
