Reports: Pristina issues arrest warrants for 57 Serbs

Reports: Pristina issues arrest warrants for 57 Serbs

Pristina media said that the warrants were issued a month ago - "immediately after the arrest of Ramush Haradinaj in France on Serbia's warrant."

The Belgrade newspaper said that the 57 people in question are suspected of committing war crimes in 1998 and 1999, while international notices for their arrest have been issued based on a decision of an EULEX (EU law and justice mission in Kosovo) judge.

According to the article, set to be published in Vecernje Novosti's edition on Tuesday, the indictments have been raised based on "secret lists."

A spokesperson for the Special Court of Kosovo confirmed that 57 local and international arrest warrants had been issued based on a request of EULEX prosecutors, but would not specify the ethnicity of the suspects.

None of the Serb lawyers in Kosovo and Metohija could confirm that the list contains exclusively the names of Serbs, but they told the newspaper the fear that this was the case was "justified."

Kosovska Mitrovica-based lawyer Ljubomir Pantic noted that he warned a year ago - when a court in Pec issued arrest warrants for 12 Serbs from Klina for alleged war crimes - that Serbs could be arrested "based on indictments sitting in some drawers."