The Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office is making maximum efforts to file indictments by the end of this year for the Reçak massacre, the massacre in Dubrava prison, as well as for the case of the forced displacement of ethnic Albanian civilians from Kosovo.
Meanwhile, to ensure more efficient handling of war crimes cases, this institution is requesting the establishment of several international standards, including the adoption of a special law and the creation of a dedicated judicial body to handle these cases domestically.
Ilir Morina, Head of the War Crimes Department within the Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office, stated in an interview with KosovoPress that over the past four years this unit has significantly consolidated its operations.
The special prosecutor emphasized that investigations concerning one of the largest massacres, that of Reçak, within Kosovo’s territory have been completed. According to him, a challenge remains in securing material evidence located in Serbia, including that held by the former International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Morina stressed that the lack of cooperation with Serbian authorities makes it impossible to obtain this evidence.
Morina also told KosovoPress that an indictment for the forced displacement of Albanian civilians from Kosovo is expected to be filed soon, which he described as one of the biggest cases being handled by the prosecutor’s office.
“For the Reçak massacre, we have opened investigations and conducted all procedural actions required within Kosovo’s territory. Now, half of the evidence, or the most important evidence for this case, is located in Serbia at the former ICTY, now called the residual mechanism. Unfortunately, we need to strengthen cooperation with these institutions. There is no cooperation at all from Serbia, which makes it impossible to obtain concrete material evidence. We are making maximum efforts to secure that evidence so that by the end of this year we can file the indictment for Reçak. We are also working and expect to soon finalize the case of the forced displacement of civilians, which is one of the largest cases this prosecutor’s office is handling. We expect to file the indictment for that case within this year. We have identified many cases we are working on and expect to complete several of them within this year,” he said.
Currently, when one accused person involved in the Dubrava prison massacre has been acquitted by the first instance court, for the massacre that happened in this prison during the war, 400 witnesses out of the 700 expected to testify have been interviewed. Over 117 Albanian prisoners were killed and 300 others wounded.
The Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office also aims to file indictments this year for the perpetrators of this massacre.
“Investigations are ongoing… the case as a whole is still in progress and we expect to finalize it soon… We are making efforts to complete the Dubrava massacre case within this year and file an indictment in absentia, since all accused persons are currently not located in Kosovo, as police investigations have shown so far. However, this is a large task requiring extensive work; 700 witnesses have been identified for interviews, and police have reached 400 of them so far. We have high hopes to increase cooperation with the ICTY residual mechanism in The Hague to obtain important material evidence regarding command responsibility in this case,” the prosecutor stated.
Since 2021, the War Crimes Department within the Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office has filed a total of 37 indictments for war crimes, 12 of which are trials in absentia.
However, special prosecutor Ilir Morina considers the creation of legal and international cooperation with Serbia as very important.
“From 2021 until March 2025, we have filed 37 indictments for war crimes, a four-year period, while international organizations over 20 years have filed 19 indictments. We have filed a significant number of cases. In 2023 alone, we filed 15 indictments against 63 people, and in 2024, 14 indictments against 25 people plus one indictment for 53 people for the Meja massacre. For the first quarter of 2025, we filed 4 indictments against 6 persons. In total, we have 14 indictments in absentia, including 12 inherited from international missions which are currently before the court and trials must start in absentia. This totals 26 indictments,” he emphasized.
Morina notes insufficient development of professional capacities for judges handling war crimes cases.
He highlighted the need for a specific legal framework and a special judicial panel that deals solely with such cases.
One major challenge, according to him, is the acceptance of old evidence from 1999, 2000, or 2001 in criminal proceedings, which depends on court decisions.
