Prishtina Basic Court on Monday convicted three suspects and acquitted a fourth over a December 2022 attack on the offices of the Municipal Election Commission in North Mitrovica in northern Kosovo amid heightened tensions as Kosovo Serbs campaigned for a boycott of local elections.

Milun “Lune” Milenkovic and Aleksandar Vlajic were each given five years of imprisonment after being found guilty of terrorism charges.

The third suspect, Dejan Pantic, was sentenced to two years’ prison after the court reclassified his terrorism charges as a lesser offence.

Another defendant, Miomir Vakic, was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Predrag Miljkovic, Milenkovic’s lawyer, said he would appeal the first-instance verdict.

“I look forward to see how the court will explain all the evidence that the prosecution, so to say, fabricated along the way and all those witnesses who were called for the first time during the trial but also the police reports, which were unbelievable,” Miljkovic said.

Milenkovic was arrested in June 2023 during a police operation in North Mitrovica. His arrest led to clashes between Serb protesters NATO peacekeepers in which three police officers were reportedly injured.

Vlajic is already serving another sentence, after Prishtina Basic Court in June sentenced him to five years in prison for spying on behalf of Serbia’s Security Information Agency, BIA.

On May 22, Vlajic reached a guilty plea with prosecutors on charges of intentionally collecting, recording and transmitting data and materials that violate Kosovo’s constitutional order and security.

According to the indictment, he transmitted this information by phone and at physical meetings to a senior BIA official, and secretly filmed and recorded movements of the Kosovo Police and the international community in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo.

Pantic’s arrest in December 2022 caused local Serbs in northern Kosovo to protest by blocking roads with trucks for three weeks.

They were only removed after the court put Pantic under house arrest. Nine months later, he was released on bail. He was not present in court for the verdict on Monday.

The prosecution alleged that the attack on North Mitrovica’s election offices was aimed at intimidating voters, so they would not participate in mayoral elections, later postponed because of the escalating security situation.

“While Municipal Election Commission officials, together with police officers, went to the premises to open the office, four suspects committed a terrorist attack by throwing two hand grenades and two shock bombs at the office. One grenade and two shock bombs exploded, causing considerable material damage, putting the lives of election officials and police officers in serious danger,” the prosecution said.