Retrial ordered in Bytyqi case

The Belgrade War Crimes Chamber of Appeals has overturned the verdicts of the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court in the Bytyqi case. The case was sent for a new trial. Retrial ordered in Bytyqi case The original verdict freed Sreten Popovic and Milos Stojanovic from charges of committing a crime against three Bytyqi brothers, prisoners of war. The three were U.S. citizens of Albanian descent who in 1999 came to Kosovo to join the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). They were arrested by Serbian authorities after the war ended and sentenced to 15 days in prison for illegally entering the country. However, they were taken out of their prison cell by police members in the town of Prokuplje and later executed. The remains were found in a mass grave in Petrovo Selo, easter Serbia, in 2001. At an open session held on November 1 2010, with the deputy War Crimes Prosecutor Dragoljub Stankovic present, the Court of Appeals passed a ruling accepting an appeal against the verdict filed by the War Crimes Prosecutor. It was explained that the Court of Appeals rendered the Prosecutor’s appeal as founded because the “verdict has no reasons for decisive facts and the factual situation has not been sufficiently described”. The first instance verdict from September 22, 2009 freed Sreten Popovic and Milos Stojanovic of the charges of committing a war crime against prisoners of war Ilija, Argon and Mehmet Bytyqi in Petrovo Selo in 1999. The War Crimes Prosecution filled on December 18, 2009 an appeal to the then Serbian Supreme court against the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court verdict on the the Bytyqi brothers case because of serious breaches of the criminal procedure and because the factual situation was insufficiently and wrongly described.

Retrial ordered in Bytyqi case

The original verdict freed Sreten Popović and Miloš Stojanović from charges of committing a crime against three Bytyqi brothers, prisoners of war.

The three were U.S. citizens of Albanian descent who in 1999 came to Kosovo to join the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). They were arrested by Serbian authorities after the war ended and sentenced to 15 days in prison for illegally entering the country.

However, they were taken out of their prison cell by police members in the town of Prokuplje and later executed. The remains were found in a mass grave in Petrovo Selo, easter Serbia, in 2001.

At an open session held on November 1 2010, with the deputy War Crimes Prosecutor Dragoljub Stanković present, the Court of Appeals passed a ruling accepting an appeal against the verdict filed by the War Crimes Prosecutor.

It was explained that the Court of Appeals rendered the Prosecutor’s appeal as founded because the “verdict has no reasons for decisive facts and the factual situation has not been sufficiently described”.

The first instance verdict from September 22, 2009 freed Sreten Popović and Miloš Stojanović of the charges of committing a war crime against prisoners of war Ilija, Argon and Mehmet Bytyqi in Petrovo Selo in 1999.

The War Crimes Prosecution filled on December 18, 2009 an appeal to the then Serbian Supreme court against the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court verdict on the the Bytyqi brothers case because of serious breaches of the criminal procedure and because the factual situation was insufficiently and wrongly described.