The indictment covers events on March 5-7, 1998, and marks the first such case concerning the killing of civilians from the Jashari family in Prekaz, Special Prosecutor General Blerim Isufaj said.

“This indictment is the result of careful, professional and evidence-based work,” Isufaj told reporters, adding that the case now rests with the court to assess the charges and evidence in accordance with the law and fair-trial standards.

Prosecutor Valdet Gashi said the 35 defendants had held senior command positions within Serbian police special units involved in the attack.

Based on evidence gathered during the investigation, prosecutors said they had established which Serbian units took part, their positions and activities, the weapons used and the damage caused to people and property.

The investigation found that 26 civilians, including children, women and elderly people, were killed in the attack, prosecutors said. Residents of the Jashari neighbourhood were also taken hostage and mistreated by members of the Serbian special units, they added.

The indictment was filed in absentia after prosecutors said they had exhausted available options to secure the defendants’ presence in the proceedings. Gashi said Kosovo law allows indictments to be filed in such circumstances.

Isufaj said the investigation had involved international cooperation, particularly with the United States, Britain, Europol, Eurojust and other authorities.

The Prekaz attack on March 5-7, 1998, was one of the defining episodes of the Kosovo war. Serbian forces killed 56 members of the extended Jashari family, most of them women, children and elderly people. Adem Jashari, a founding commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), was also killed along with his father Shaban and brother Hamza after resisting for three days.

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Prosecutor Atdhe Dema told reporters the charges follow five years of investigation and cover war crimes against civilians committed between January and June 1999.

Dema said all 21 suspects exercised full control over the former Yugoslav army and Serbian police but failed to prevent or punish atrocities, which included property destruction, attacks on civilians, persecution and arbitrary detention on ethnic grounds. These acts formed part of a broader campaign that displaced about 863,000 ethnic Albanians, according to official figures.

He said their names could not yet be disclosed and that international arrest warrants have been requested. Kosovo law allows trials in absentia since a 2022 criminal code amendment, though any conviction can be retried if defendants are later arrested.

According to the Humanitarian Law Center, Kosovo courts have filed 50 indictments in absentia against 73 Serbian forces members since the law took effect. The first verdict came in December 2024, when Čedomir Aksić was sentenced to 15 years for war crimes.

More than 13,000 civilians were killed and over 1,600 remain missing from the conflict. Hundreds of ethnic Albanians killed in Kosovo were later discovered in mass graves in Serbia.

Several Serbian political and military leaders, including Slobodan Milošević, were prosecuted by the UN tribunal in The Hague for crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

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