Kosovo Prosecution ‘Cannot Reopen’ Wartime Rape Case

Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman. Photo: BIRN.

Kosovo's Special Prosecutor Drita Hajdari told BIRN on Friday that she tried for some time to find a legal basis to reopen the case of Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman, but did not succeed.

"To reopen a case, new proof is needed… but only if it is in favour of the defendant, not against him," she said.

In 2014, Kosovo's Supreme Court acquitted two former Serb policemen who were indicted for raping Krasniqi Goodman.

Krasniqi Goodman was one of the first women to speak publicly about how she was raped during the war, when she was 16 years old.

Prosecutor Hajdari told BIRN Kosovo's TV programme 'Jeta ne Kosove' in November that she had relaunched investigations into the case.

"The case of Vasfije has been reopened. I decided to reopen her case, but not against the perpetrators, because the procedures against [both of] them were closed with the final verdict," Hajdari said.

She explained that one of the reasons for reopening the case was that rape was used as a "tool of war" by Serbian forces.