here - Humanitarian Law Center/Fond za humanitarno pravo

that the activities that the KLA took were the activities they were habitually taking in other
locations in Kosovo”.
It is debatable whether the chamber should have agreed to admit Petrović’s identification of
Kashnjeti at the main hearing into evidence. During Petrović’s testimony, the chamber showed
him a photograph which, according to the TRZ, showed Mark Kashnjeti. Petrović recognized
Kashnjeti in the photograph. This identification of the accused by witness Petrović cannot have
any probative value because the picture in question had appeared in almost all the media long
before Petrović’s testimony, with clear captions indicating that the person in the photograph was
the person claimed by the TRZ to be Kashnjeti.
2.4. Bytyqi 113
On 9 May 2012, the Higher Court in Belgrade 114 delivered a judgment in the Bytyqi case retrial,
acquitting Sreten Popović and Miloš Stojanović of charges of committing a war crime against
prisoners of war. 115
Course of proceedings
On 23 August 2006, the TRZ indicted Sreten Popović and Miloš Stojanović 116 for a war crime
against prisoners of war.
According to the indictment, Sreten Popović, who at the time was platoon commander of the
Operational Pursuit Group (OPG), part of the 124th intervention brigade of the Serbian MUP’s
PJP, and Miloš Stojanović, commander of a squad in the same platoon, deprived the injured
parties - brothers Agron, Ylli and Mehmet Bytyqi, members of the ‘Atlantic Brigade’ volunteer
group, part of the KLA – of their right to a fair trial and subjected them to inhuman treatment and
mental torture. Specifically, Sreten Popović, acting on orders received from his superior officer,
Vlastimir Đorđević, a General in the Serbian MUP, ordered Miloš Stojanović to detain the
victims on their release from the District Jail in Prokuplje, where they had served their prison
term for a misdemeanour and transport them to the PJP training grounds in Petrovo Selo near
Kladovo (eastern Serbia). Miloš Stojanović did so on 8 July 1999 and drove the victims to the
training centre in Petrovo Selo, where he handed them over to Sreten Popović. Stojanović and
Popović locked the brothers up in a warehouse facility within the centre, lacking basic sanitation,
and without informing them of the reasons for confinement, because of which the victims felt
unbearable fear for their lives and bodily integrity. Popović then handed the injured parties over
113 K-Po2 51/2010.
114 Members of the trial chamber: judge Rastko Popović (presiding), judge Vinka Beraha Nikićević and judge
Snežana Nikolić Garotić.
115 Aiding and abetting in the commission of a war crime against prisoners of war under Article 144 of the CC of
FRY in conjunction with Article 24 of the CC of the FRY.
116 Deputy War Crimes Prosecutor Dragoljub Stanković.
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