Kosovo: Five suspects arrested for war crimes committed in 1999

(Patria) - Kosovo authorities today arrested five people in the Gjilan region suspected of war crimes, the Special Prosecution of Kosovo announced.

The Prosecution clarifies that they were arrested in a joint operation by security institutions, which comes after a multi-month investigation.

The arrested individuals are allegedly involved in war crimes - killing, wounding, and mistreating civilians in the villages of Llovce, Podgrađe, and Ugljare in April 1999.

"Individuals with the initials D.C., D.N., N.S., S.J., M.Š. were arrested on reasonable suspicion that they, in complicity with other unknown members of this group, armed and dressed in Serbian police or army uniforms, on April 5, 1999, intentionally killed, wounded, burned alive Albanian civilian victims, took hostages, raped, beat, mistreated, physically and psychologically tortured, destroyed Albanian property, expelled the Albanian civilian population, and destroyed cultural and religious objects," the statement reads.

The Prosecution added that further legal procedural actions will be taken for the mentioned individuals, and the investigation continues.