The Prishtina Basic Court on Friday convicted three Kosovo Serbs of terrorism and “serious acts against the constitutional order and security of Kosovo” by participating in an attack by a Serbian-backed group of armed men in the Kosovo village of Banjska in September 2023, which left one Kosovo police officer dead.

Blagoje Spasojevic, 33, and Vladimir Tolic, 40, who were arrested in military fatigues at the scene, were sentenced to life imprisonment. A third man, Dusan Maksimovic, 29, who was apprehended the next day, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Announcing the verdict, presiding judge Ngadhnjim Arrni said that at 1 a.m. on September 24, 2023, the three defendants were part of a “well trained” group of Serbs who “in an organised manner, entered the Republic of Kosovo illegally from the Republic of Serbia with dozens of vehicles, some armoured”.

They brought a cache of weapons, military camouflage and equipment, the judge continued.

“The aim was to destabilise and destroy the basic political, constitutional, economic, and social structures of the Republic of Kosovo, through a well-organised plan. They attempted to secede parts of the territory in northern Kosovo, which have a majority Serbian population, and join them with Serbia,” he said.

All three men had pleaded not guilty to the charges. However, during closing statements on Monday, Spasojevic called his participation in the events of September 24, 2023 “the biggest mistake of my life”.

On the day of the attack, dozens of armed Serbs, including Spasojevic, ambushed a police patrol in northern Kosovo with what prosecutors say was the aim of sparking a conflict that would carve off Serb-populated towns and villages and unite them with Serbia.

Kosovo Albanian police officer Afrim Bunjaku, 50, was killed and another officer, Clirim Shaqiri, was wounded. Two of the gunmen were confirmed killed, but reports say others were injured and treated in Serbia, their fate unknown.

The indictment said that the attackers underwent training at the Pasuljanske Livade military training ground in central Serbia, just over 100 kilometres north of the Kosovo border, just days earlier, citing drone footage seized in Banjska. Serbia, it stated, placed at the group’s disposal “all necessary” military infrastructure and logistics equipment “to commit the terrorist attack”.

Serbia Stands Accused as Kosovo Court Gives Verdict on 2023 Armed Attack

In total, 44 individuals and one legal entity were named in the indictment. Forty-three of them, including Spasojevic, Tolic and Maksimovic, were charged with terrorism and serious acts against the constitutional order and security of Kosovo. A legal entity, RAD d.o.o., and its owner, Radule Stevic, were charged with money-laundering, as was one of the other 43 – the alleged ringleader, local Serb powerbroker, businessman and politician Milan Radoicic.

Radoicic, former deputy leader of Serbian government-backed Kosovo Serb political party Srpska Lista, is in Serbia. He has accepted responsibility for the armed attack, but Serbia, which does not recognise Kosovo’s independence, is unlikely to hand him over for trial.

According to the indictment, Radoicic had been financing a “structured terrorist group” since 2017, with the aim of “separating” four Serb-majority municipalities in northern Kosovo “to join them with the Republic of Serbia”.

Radoicic claimed Serbia had no knowledge of his plans, but Kosovo says he would never have been able to amass such a cache of weapons and launch such an audacious attack without, at the very least, the tacit approval of Serbia.

In October 2023, BIRN reported that some of the mortar rounds and anti-tank rocket launchers used by the Serb attackers had passed through state maintenance centres in Serbia in 2018 and 2021, while ammunition included assault rifle rounds that match those made in 2022 by the Belom factory, a Serbian state arms producer.

After the verdict on Friday, the lawyer for the family of slain policeman Bunjaku, Arianit Koci, told media that he was pleased with the verdict but “until the heads or organisers [of the attack plot] are not brought to justice, this is halfway justice”.