The case against 17 indicted Albanians from Serbia started on September 23rd, 2009 before the Trial Chamber of the District Court in Belgrade presided by the Judge Snežana Nikolić Garotić. The indictment of August 11th, 2009 filed by the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor charged the accused with the following: during the period from June to December 1999, as members of the KLA, after one of their units was stationed on the territory of the operational zone so called Karakak [territory of the municipalities Gnjilane/Gjilan, Vitina/Viti, Kosovska Kamenica/Kamenicë and Novo Brdo/Novobërdë, Kosovo] in early June 1999, with the unit’s command post located at the building of the Yugoslav People’s Army Centre in Gnjilane/Gnjilan and the rest of the unit’s members, about 100 soldiers, stationed in the building of the high school dormitory, they consciously and willingly ordered and committed acts of unlawful detentions, inhumane treatment, torture, rape, killings against Serb and other non-Albanian civilians and some Albanian civilians, and caused physical injuries, inflicted great suffering, and looted property. At least 34 persons are still regarded as missing while at least 153 were unlawfully detained, tortured and then released. In doing this, the accused committed the criminal offence of a war crime against a civilian population from Article 142, Paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in relation to Article 22, acting in complicity.
