The Prishtina Basic Court on Thursday sentenced Kosovo Serb Aleksandar Vlajic to five years’ imprisonment for espionage as an agent and collaborator with Serbia’s Security Information Agency, BIA.

He was also given a 1,000-euro fine for illegal possession of weapons.

“If the defendant does not want to, or cannot, pay the fine, I can replace the fine with a prison sentence, with one day of imprisonment considered a 20-euro fine,” judge Ngadhnjim Arrni said.

Kosovo Police found a Crvena Zastava 4.5-mm-caliber weapon in Vlajic’s possession.

On May 22, Vlajic reached a guilty plea with the special prosecution 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 in 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.

The indictment said Vlajic collected information about Kosovo Serbs who allegedly collaborate with Kosovo security structures and disclosed the identity of a Kosovo Intelligence Agency, KIA, official who he had learned was an active member of the Kosovo Police.

He also created a network of informants within international organisations in Kosovo of local staff from the Serb community from whom he sought information on political and security issues in the country, and then communicated the information to the BIA official.

Vlajic is also an accused in a separate case over an alleged attack on election commission offices in North Mitrovica in 2022, together with Milun Millenkovic, known as “Llune”, and former Kosovo police officers Dejan Pantic and Miomir Vakic. Pantic’s arrest sparked road blockades by Kosovo Serbs, which continued for almost three weeks.

Vlajic has been in detention since June 26, 2024, time which will be counted towards his sentence.