Kosovo MP Admits ‘War Rape’ Photo Probably False

Flora Brovina apologised on Friday for showing the explicit photograph to media and claiming that it showed three Serbian soldiers raping an ethnic Albanian woman during the war.

"The photograph is probably falsified," Brovina told a press conference.

"I want to apologise to everybody, especially the women who were raped [during the war]. I was given this photograph in 2003 in an envelope. I did not think of verifying it because I have had it since 2003. The person who gave it to me is an activist for human rights," she added.

Kosovo's Special Prosecution has already begun an investigation into whether or not the photograph is authentic.

The investigation was launched after online searches turned up the same image on web pages that suggest it was actually taken during the Iraq war. The image also appears on one pornography site.

Brovina, an MP from the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, showed the uncensored photograph to media in the corridor of the Kosovo Assembly on Thursday during a debate about a proposed parliamentary resolution accusing Serbia of committing genocide during the 1998-99 war.

Her actions were condemned by several female politicians including former President Atifete Jahjaga, and by Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman, one of the first women in Kosovo to speak publicly about her experience of being raped during the war.