Belgrade, July 17 - In one of the two mass graves discovered at Petrovo Selo near Kladovo, were found three male bodies believed to have been US citizens of ethnic Albanian origin, the Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic told a press conference on Tuesday.
"Three male bodies, shot at close range, blindfolded and hands tied with wire, were found atop a heap of bodies in a pit at Petrovo Selo, near Kladovo. The Kursumlija Magistrate Court document found on the bodies indicates the identity of the victims as Chicago-born brothers Bytyqui: Agron (1978), Mehmet (1976), Ylli (1974)," Mihajlovic said, adding that no other papers had been found. .
According to him, the Interior Ministry Working Group looked through the records of the Prokuplje Secretariat of Internal Affairs (SUP Prokuplje) and established that on June 26 the Bytyqui brothers had been arrested near the village of Rudare in the municipality of Prokuplje and sentenced to 15 days in jail for crossing the Kosovo-Serbia border illegally. .
"The Bytyqui brothers were released at the request of the prison warden on July 8, four days before the end of their sentence. When, on the same day, the SUP Prokuplje Foreign Citizens Inspector came to the District Prison to hand in the court ruling on the prohibition of entry into the FRY for a period of two years, he was told that the offenders had already been discharged," Mihajlovic said.
"This is a very serious crime, as there is no evidence pointing to the victims having been tried and given a death sentence legally. At the moment we are checking out the possibility of the brothers having been volunteers of the Atlantic Brigade, made up of Albanians living abroad."
"Regardless of this, the crime was committed during peacetime, after the Kumanovo Agreement. This is part of a closely guarded state secret that is now surfacing and which we must come to terms with," Mihajlovic stressed, adding that he had received on Monday the American Ambassador William Montgomery who required a full investigation of the crime.