Zeldin Demands Justice For Bytyqi Brothers

Ilir Bytyqi testified in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week, demanding justice for his brothers, Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bytyqi, Hampton Bays residents who were murdered in Serbia toward the end of the Kosovo War in 1999.

He urged the committee on Tuesday, April 30, to push forward legislation, reintroduced by U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin last month, which demands that the Serbian government make a priority of finding those responsible for the “execution-style” murders of his brothers while they were in Serbia on a humanitarian mission.

The legislation calls for the prosecution of those responsible, and states that future relations between the United States and Serbia should be contingent upon the investigation.

“For the past 20 years, my brother Fatose and I have been fighting for justice because the Serbian government won’t,” Mr. Bytyqi said in his testimony. “On behalf of my family, I am here to offer you a simple message: Victims cannot be ignored. If you care about justice, we can’t be ignored.”

In his testimony, he argued that Serbian President Aleksander Vucic told his brother Fatose, in 2015, that he believed only two men to be responsible for the three Bytyqi brothers’ deaths. The main suspect, former Serbian Police General Goran “Guri” Radosavljevic, according to Mr. Zeldin, was banned from entering the United States last December.

According to a prominent 2017 report by the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Center, the three brothers’ bodies were found bound and with bullet wounds to their heads in 2001, and buried on the grounds of a training facility that was under Mr. Radosavljevic’s command.

However, in February, after meeting with Mr. Vucic at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Mr. Zeldin said that the Serbian president argued that there is not enough evidence to convict Mr. Radosavljevic.

“The family wants their day in court based off the evidence that exists,” Mr. Zeldin said. “Whatever evidence you have now, it’s time for a trial. It’s time for a day in court.”