Prishtina Basic Court sentenced two former members of Serbian armed forces, Zoran Kostic and Dragan Milovic, to 15 and seven years of imprisonment respectively after being found guilty on war crimes against Albanian civilians committed in April 1999 near the northern Vushtrri/Vucitrn municipality.

Judge Lutfi Shala said that the time the suspects had spent in detention would be counted towards their jail terms. Kostic and Milovic were arrested in September 2023.

Predrag Miljkovic, lawyer for Kostic, criticised the verdict and announced an appeal. “I am honestly disappointed. The judge shyly read this [verdict] and ran away, he didn’t even respect us and give a short explanation about why he made that decision,” Serbian-language portal Radio KIM quoted Miljkovic as saying.

“I can’t wait to see the written version of the verdict and see that famous explanation, when we gave more than enough evidence that Zoran [Kostic] cannot be guilty of any of the three counts of the indictment,” he added.

Kosovo’s Special Prosecution alleged that Kostic on April 6, 1999, together with other members of the Police, Army and Serbian paramilitaries, dressed in a police uniform and armed, “intentionally participated directly in the attack against the civilian population of Albanian nationality”.

The indictment alleged that he was among the members of Serbian army and paramilitary units who “participated in the looting of houses of Albanian residents, then burned the houses and killed unarmed civilians in the village of Reznik”.

The prosecution alleged that Milovic was among other uniformed members of Serbian police and Yugoslav military that forcibly deported around 20,000 inhabitants from Vushtrri/Vucitrn area and “mistreated, beat and tortured” civilians gathered near city cemeteries.