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to unidentified members of the MUP and Special Anti-Terrorist Units (SAJ), although he could
have known that they would kill the injured parties summarily, without trial. The members of the
MUP and SAJ tied up the victims with wire, took them to a waste pit some 500 meters away from
the centre and killed them by shooting them in the back of the head.
On 22 September 2009, the District Court in Belgrade 117 delivered a judgment acquitting the
accused because it had not been proven that they had committed the offence for which they were
indicted.
Having considered the appeal lodged by the TRZ, the Court of Appeal in Belgrade handed down
a ruling accepting the appeal, reversing the trial court judgment and remitting the case to the trial
court for a new trial.
Giving its reasons for its decision, the Court of Appeal stated that the trial court substantially
violated the provisions of the criminal procedure in several respects: the disposition of the
judgment was contradictory to the reasoning, the judgment failed to state the reasons regarding
the decisive facts, and the reasons that were provided were unclear.
At a new trial, which began on 23 September 2011, the accused were heard again and 10
witnesses were questioned.
The TRZ further amended the indictment on 5 April 2012, redefining the acts of the accused as
acts violating the norms of international law regarding the treatment of prisoners of war and
intentional aiding and abetting of unidentified members of the police to deprive the victims of life
thereby depriving them of the right to have a proper and unbiased trial.
On 9 May 2012, judge Rastko Popović, who presided over the trial chamber, read out a judgment
acquitting the defendants in the Bytyqi case retrial. In his oral statement of the reasons behind the
judgment, judge Popović said that the TRZ had failed to prove that the accused had committed
the crime for which they were indicted or that the murder of the brothers Bytyqi had been
committed in connection with the armed conflict, since the armed conflict ended on 20 June
1999 with the withdrawal of VJ and Serb police forces from Kosovo, and the brothers Bytyqi
had been arrested on 26 June 1999. The chamber found that the accused were not aware that the
injured parties were prisoners of war. “Owing to contradictions and incoherence in the
indictment, it was not possible to ascertain when and where the victims were murdered, nor who
murdered them; the only thing that was established is that their mortal remains were found in
2001 in a mass grave located in Petrovo Selo”. The presiding judge emphasized that the Bytyqi
brothers were arrested while performing a humane act – helping two Roma families get from
Kosovo to Serbia, where they wanted to seek refuge. The presiding judge emphasized that it was
up to the TRZ to find out who killed the Bytyqi brothers and on whose orders.
117 Members of the trial chamber: judge Vesko Krstajić (presiding), judge Vinka Beraha Nikićević and judge
Snežana Nikolić Garotić.
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