Judging with impunity : the role of prosecutors and judges in show trials of Kosovo Albanians in the period 1998-2000
Judging with impunity : the role of prosecutors and judges in show trials of Kosovo Albanians in the period 1998-2000

Author(s): Mihailo Pavlović
Subject(s): Criminal Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Criminology
Published by: Fond za humanitarno pravo
Keywords: Kosovo Albanians trials; Political indictments; Fair trial violations; Amnesty laws; Judicial accountability; Humanitarian Law Center; Post-war justice in Serbia
Summary/Abstract: Around the end of 1996 and the beginning of 1997, the offices of district public prosecutors began indicting Kosovo Albanians en masse, pursuant to Article 125 of the CCY (with reference to terrorism) and Article 136, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the CCY (with reference to association for the purpose of conducting hostile activities). The trials for the above-cited charges were conducted by district courts in Kosovo during 1998 and 1999, more specifically until 9 June 1999 when the Kumanovo Agreement was signed and the army and police began their withdrawal from the territory of Kosovo. With the withdrawal of the military and police forces, all prisoners were taken from Kosovo prisons and transferred to prisons in Serbia proper. The transfer of detainees ran alongside the transfer of cases to courts in Serbia. The criminal cases transferred from Kosovo were heard by Serb judges from Kosovo, but also by judges from Serbia who had been previously transferred to Kosovo to help their colleagues with the caseload. The period 1998-2000 saw an enormous number of political trials of Kosovo Albanians before district courts in Serbia. The passing of the Amnesty Law in 2001 brought an end to the proceedings against Kosovo Albanians. The amnesty provided for a bar to further prosecution, release from prison, and removal of convictions from the official records. The criminal act of terrorism was not covered by the amnesty, as a result of which it can still be prosecuted.

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