Kosovo MP Flora Brovina came under fierce criticism in Pristina after a news portal reported that the photograph she held up in parliament was not that of an Albanian woman being raped by Serbian troops but came from an Iraqi pornography site.

Brovina held up the photograph during the parliamentary debate on a resolution accusing Serbia of commiting genocide in Kosovo. She claimed that the image showed Serbian troops raping an Albanian woman during the 1998/99 war.  

She was fiercely criticized for publishing the photograph with critics saying that it would upset the family and the Kosovo Women‘s Network saying she violated the dignity of victims before news portals revealed that it had been taken from a pornography site. Among the critics was Brovina‘s fellow Kosovo Democratic Party MP Arbana Xharra who said the incident could be used by the Serbian authorities to deny crimes.

The Insajderi portal published the photograph under the headline Picture shown by Brovina is on Iraqi porn site with the words US Military Crimes on top of the image. The report said that the portal‘s journalists found the image through Google. Insajderi added that Brovina did not reply to requests for a comment.  

Pristina daily Gazeta Express also published the photograph saying that what Brovina claimed in parliament was untrue. It said that the Iraqi porn site had video of the alleged rape which it downloaded but would not publish.  

The Pristina press and portals published the photograph as headline news but later either removed or blurred it.