The Special Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo announced that it has filed an indictment against Mr. N, of Serbian nationality, on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense of “war crimes against the civilian population” in Kosovo.

“Investigations have proven that during the time period of the war in Kosovo during the year 1998-1999, the defendant committed sexual violence as a war crime against a victim of Albanian nationality”, it was said in the announcement of the Special Prosecutor’s Office.

The Special Prosecutor’s Office said that the defendant is already in custody, without giving more details.

However, on March 4 of this year, the Kosovo Police announced that Mr. N., of Serbian nationality, was arrested in North Mitrovica during a joint operation between the Police and the Special Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo, under suspicion of war crimes and sexual violence during the last war in Kosovo.

Meanwhile, the authorities said that the defendant, 70 years old, is suspected of having committed the crimes during 1999 in the city of Vushtrri.

Last December, the Special Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo said that it has filed a total of 33 charges, involving 89 people, for war crimes in Kosovo.

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, writes Radio Free Europe.

During the last war in Kosovo in 1998-99, over 13,000 civilians were killed and thousands more disappeared.

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

However, the exact number of victims of sexual violence during the war is not known.

According to a report by the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention, this figure reaches up to 20 thousand.