Prishtina Basic Court on Thursday ordered 30 days of detention for Ramadan Morina for his alleged participation in a massacre in the Kosovo village of Burim/Jovic near Malisheve/Malisevo in March 1999.

“There is a well-founded suspicion that on March 31, 1999, the defendant R.M. participated in the crimes committed in the village of Burim. It is also suspected that on the same date, he had also participated in the murder of 34 victims of this village,” the court said.

It also found that “if the suspect were released on bail, he could escape, taking into consideration that he also holds Serbian citizenship and has permanent residency in Serbia.”

On Tuesday, Kosovo’s Special Prosecution and police announced the arrest of Morina, an ethnic Albanian who comes from a village near the site of the massacre. He has been living in Serbia and was arrested hours after he entered Kosovo.

While the prosecution alleges that Morina, “in cooperation with members of Serbia’s police and military forces, participated in the massacre of 34 Albanian civilians”, it does not specify which unit he allegedly belonged to.

However it specified that “material evidence, including testimonies of eyewitnesses and survivors, have been obtained during the investigations”.