The head of the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro did not allow a local Serb to be extradited for execution in Kosovo
The Minister of Justice of Montenegro, Marko Kovac, rejected the request of the “Republic of Kosovo” to extradite a citizen of the country, a Serb, a veteran of the Yugoslav wars, 61-year-old Momcilo Vukotic.
Previously, Vukotic was arrested in his own country, and the court in Bjelo Polje sentenced him to extradition to the Albanian separatists.
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, the official decision of the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro states that the extradition of this suspect to Kosovo would constitute a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
In particular, in its request, the so-called “Republic of Kosovo” did not indicate what specific “war crimes” Vukotic had committed, limiting itself to a lengthy statement that 24 years later he was allegedly identified from a photograph by some “witness”. In addition, the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice notes the advanced age of the suspect and the fact that his case bears all the signs of political persecution.
Marko Kovac noted that the case of Vukotic is not the only one, and the presence of several precedents related to the extradition of Montenegrin citizens to Kosovo for “war crimes” indicates the political background of this trend.
Earlier, Momcilo Vukotic was arrested at the request of the so-called “Republic of Kosovo” on suspicion of committing war crimes against civilians. The High Court of Bijelo Polje approved his extradition, but after the decision of the Ministry of Justice, it also rejected the Kosovo request.
Montenegro's Justice Minister prevented the extradition of a local Serb to face reprisals in Kosovo.