BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian prosecutors filed war crimes charges on Friday against 17 former Kosovo guerrillas for the alleged murder, rape and torture of Serb civilians.
The indictment said the suspects are charged in connection with the kidnapping of 159 Serbs and the deaths of at least 51 of them in the eastern Kosovo town of Gnjilane in the wake of Kosovo's 1998-99 war.
They are charged with "murder, rape, detention, mutilation, torture and looting," the indictment said. The charges carry up to 20 years in jail.
Nine of the 17 men were arrested in December in a predominantly Albanian-populated region of Serbia bordering Kosovo. Eight of the suspects are at large and were charged in absentia.
Defense lawyers for the suspects were expected to be appointed after the charges were filed. The families of those arrested have said they are innocent.
The war in Kosovo — then a province of Serbia — began with an ethnic Albanian separatist rebellion against the Serbian rule, and ended after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign which forced Serbia's army and police to pull out of Kosovo.
After the war ended, the suspects allegedly launched retaliatory attacks against the Serb minority in Kosovo, where 90 percent of the population of 2 million is ethnic Albanian.
Kosovo's independence has been recognized by 60 countries including the U.S. and most EU countries — but not Serbia.
In a related development, Serbian officials said Friday the release of Kosovo's former prime minister Agim Ceku from detention in Bulgaria will jeopardize relations between the Balkan neighbors.
A Bulgarian court on Thursday released Ceku from custody, two days after he was detained on an international arrest warrant requested by Serbia for alleged war crimes.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said the release of Ceku "represents a serious blow for international justice."
Ceku, who was prime minister of Kosovo between 2006 and 2008, is wanted in Belgrade for war crimes allegedly committed by the Kosovo rebels during the 1998-1999 fighting in Kosovo. He was taken into custody while entering Bulgaria from Macedonia late Tuesday.
Serbia had asked Bulgaria to extradite him.
by the associated press
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