27 December 2012

The district court of Prizren, in a mixed panel of one EULEX judge and two local judges, presided over by a EULEX judge acquitted one defendant, who was charged with aggravated murder. The panel found that it was not proven he committed the criminal offence that he was indicted for.

This case relates to a man from Prizren who disappeared in August 1999 and whose remains were found in the village of Karaqice in the Municipality of Shtime/ Štimlje in 2000 and in 2002. In 2011, a panel of the District Court of Prizren found the defendant in this case, S.V., guilty of having committed this murder. After an appeal filed by the Defence Council was granted by the Supreme Court, the case was sent back for re-trial. This re-trial has now been concluded in first instance.

The case was prosecuted by a EULEX prosecutor.