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Serbia releases Kosovo citizen, Hazir Haziri

2026-01-21 19:26:12, Kosova & Bota CNA

Serbia releases Kosovo citizen, Hazir Haziri

Serbian authorities have released Kosovo citizen Hazir Haziri from custody – about four months after arresting him for alleged war crimes – lawyer Arianit Koci announced on Wednesday.

Haziri was arrested on September 8 at the border crossing in Merdare and has been held in detention in Serbia since then.

Haziri's release "confirms that the arrest was unfounded and based on allegations unsupported by facts," said lawyer Koci, who was involved in his case.

"The case underscores the necessity for Kosovo citizens to have immediate legal support whenever they face unjust detentions abroad," Koci wrote on Facebook.

He added that Hazir's health condition is good.

Haziri, 77, was arrested for alleged war crimes during the last war in Kosovo in 1998-99.

Serbian authorities claimed at the time that "in June 1999, in Podujeva, in collaboration with several members of the KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army], he shot and killed a Serbian civilian."

Serbia has repeatedly arrested Kosovo citizens under such allegations, and only in 2025 were several such arrests recorded.

Lawyer Koci, who collaborates with local lawyers in Serbia because as a lawyer from Kosovo he is not licensed to defend Kosovars there, told Radio Free Europe in December that "there are many such cases."

Speaking about Hazir, he had said: "In the case of Hazir Hazir, the witnesses have exonerated him. But, the prosecution now wants to check his phone from 2025 for an event from 1999. How is this possible?"

According to him, Haziri had crossed the territory of Serbia dozens of times before and was not detained until September of last year.

"Citizens are collateral [damage]. The individual always suffers when two states have problems. Serbia is apparently exploiting this mechanism in a brutal way," he said./REL





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