In Serbia, Justice Gets an Early Release

He exercised de jure and de facto responsibility over Serbian police forces that "committed crimes on a massive scale," it added.

My colleagues and I documented many of those appalling acts, which resulted from policy rather than rogue troops. I testified at the UN tribunal against Lukic and his cohorts, three of whom are also now free.

The UN mechanism dealing with these cases set conditions for Lukic's release: he may not own a gun or visit Kosovo. He must notify the authorities when he wants to travel.

Importantly, he is forbidden to speak with media or praise other convicted war criminals. That's a new and welcome constraint because others who were released early have been denying their crimes, impugning the UN tribunal, and extolling their wartime acts.

Forensic experts from Serbia, Kosovo and the European Union search the area where a mass grave was found in the village of Kizevak, near the town of Raska in south-west Serbia in December 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/Djordje Savic.

The Serbian government has welcomed these people back as heroes, glorifying their criminal acts. Former Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, convicted together with Lukic, took a senior position in the ruling party. The convicted former commander of Yugoslav Army forces in Kosovo, Vladimir Lazarivic, was hired to teach at the Serbian military academy.

Domestic war crimes prosecutions in Serbia have slowed or ground to a halt, with cases of lower-level suspects dragging on for years. Survivors from Kosovo who agreed to testify have made multiple trips to Belgrade in vain. The EU recently criticised Serbia for its "very weak track record in the processing of war crimes cases."

In 1999, just after the war, Serbian forces transferred the...