The Special Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo filed an indictment on Tuesday against the defendant with the initials, G.V., of Serbian nationality, under suspicion of committing sexual violence against a victim of Albanian nationality.

Through a communiqué, the Prosecutor’s Office said that the investigations have proven that during the war in Kosovo, in the period 1998-1999, the defendant committed sexual violence, as a war crime.

The exact number of women raped during the war in Kosovo is not known, but during the post-war years various local and international organizations have said that the number could reach up to 20 thousand.

The prosecution has proposed to the Basic Court in Pristina that the trial be held in absentia, as the defendant is inaccessible to the justice bodies.

The trial can be held in the absence of the accused and this can be done when the prosecution and the court have exhausted all means to ensure the presence of the accused.

This is the third indictment for war crimes in absentia filed during the month of December.

The Minister of Justice of Kosovo, Albulena Haxhiu, said on December 23, that so far 67 indictments have been filed by the war crimes department in the Prosecutor’s Office.

The first trial in absentia for war crimes started in November 2023 in the Special Department of the Basic Court in Pristina.

Since the end of the last war in Kosovo, about 70 people have been convicted of war crimes before local and international institutions.

From 2000 to 2008, war crimes in Kosovo were investigated by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), while from 2008, by the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX).

In 2018, this mission submitted the cases to the Kosovo Prosecutor’s Office and local courts.

During the last war in Kosovo in 1998-1999, over 13,000 civilians were killed and thousands more disappeared.

More than 1,600 people are still missing – most of them Albanians.