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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia requires urgent, immediate extradition of Haradinaj

Belgrade, 13 January 2017

Director of the Office for Kosovo-Metohija Marko Djuric said that the government at its session today called on all EU member states and other countries to respect international law and Interpol arrest warrants, and not to make political decisions in such cases.

At a press conference held after the government session dedicated to the case of Ramush Haradinaj, Djuric said that our country will continue with the prosecution of all those accused and convicted of war crimes regardless of their nationality.

Serbia requests urgent extradition of Haradinaj, he stressed and adding that it does not accept justice that gives impunity to the killing of innocent civilians of all ethnicities, as those committed by Haradinaj and his criminal group.

He asked whether the killing of innocent civilians, including a two-week-old baby, is a reason not good enough for Haradinaj to be extradited to the judicial authorities of Serbia, and read out excerpts from the indictment against the accused former KLA leader and former prime minister of Kosovo.

Minister of Justice Nela Kuburovic said that the Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes expanded the investigation against Haradinaj, in which there are 30 witnesses as well as other evidence.

Some of the witnesses have given a written statement, and there are those who have the status of a protected witness, she noted, adding that although Haradinaj has been released pending the decision on Serbia’s request for extradition, Serbia will not give up its intentions.

We hope that the French authorities will act professionally and will adhere to the European Convention on Extradition, which France also signed and which obliges the French authorities to act accordingly regardless of whether the case concerns war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity, Kuburovic underlined.

This particular case concerns crimes against the civilian population, primarily Serbs, Roma and Albanians who did not agree to cooperate with the KLA during 1999, she explained.

According to Kuburovic, although Haradinaj's attorneys appealed quoting the principle of “ne bis in idem”, or that he had already been acquitted for the same crimes by the ICTY in The Hague, those proceedings were conducted for the acts committed from March to September 1998, while the Serbian judicial authorities accuse him of acts mostly committed in June 1999.

The decision to conduct an investigation in 2004 and the order for its expansion are related to this time period, she specified, reiterating that this case does not refer to the same acts and the same victims, and that the timeframe is not the same either.

Former KLA commander Ramush Haradinaj was released yesterday from extradition custody, but he was forbidden to leave France until the French court decides on Serbia's request for extradition.