The Prishtina Basic Court on Wednesday sentenced Slobodan Radenkovic to two years’ imprisonment for attacking NATO peacekeepers in the northern municipality of Zvecan in May 2023, and for participation in a crowd committing a criminal offence and hooliganism.

Judge Medie Bytyqi said: “With the consent of the defendant, the six-month prison sentence [for participation in a crowd committing a crime and hooliganism] was replaced with a 15,000-euro fine.”

Bytyqi added that his time spent in detention since January 14 would also be deducted from the two-year jail sentence.

Radenkovic pleaded guilty to being part of a group that attacked members of KFOR after they imposed preventive measures around the Zvecan municipality building following the disputed election of ethnic Albanian mayors in Serb-majority northern Kosovo in 2023.

Violence erupted on May 29, 2023, as protesting Serbs argued that the new ethnic Albanian mayors of Leposavic, North Mitrovica, Zvecan and Zubin Potok – who won elections after most Serbs boycotted the polls – were illegitimate and should not be allowed to take office.

Lulzim Hetemi, Ilir Peci and Izmir Zeqiri were sworn in as mayors of Leposavic, Zvecan and Zubin Potok, taking their oaths in alternative facilities after local Serbs and crime groups acted to prevent the new mayors from entering their municipal offices.

The only mayor who managed to enter his municipal office was Lulzim Hetemi, with the help of the police. Hetemi did not leave the building for the next seven months. The other two mayors served out their mandates from alternative facilities in majority-Albanian villages.

According to the indictment, on May 29, 2023, on the edge of the Zvecan municipality facility, Radenkovic and other suspects attacked KFOR soldiers using force, improvised explosive devices and firearms.

One year after the incident, KFOR recalled that “93 personnel were wounded, some of whom with life-changing injuries. These attacks were unprovoked and were totally unacceptable.” According to the Kosovo prosecution, Kosovo police officers were also injured.

In February 2024, two Serb men, Rados Petrovic and Dusan Obrenovic were found guilty of participating in the riots. Petrovic received a six-month prison sentence, later converted to a fine of 6,000 euros. Obrenovic was also sentenced to six months.

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo registered 30 attacks against journalists during the protests. In February 2025, Dalibor Spasic was given a six-month jail term for involvement in these attacks, which was converted into a fine. In October 2025, Slavko Simic, of the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party, pleaded not guilty to involvement in the attacks.

As a result of the escalation of the security situation in the north, KFOR increased its personnel and in June 2023, the EU and US announced a package of measures against Kosovo for its failure to restore calm. The measures were only lifted around three years later, in March 2026.

Kosovo later drafted an administrative directive aimed at allowing people to request the dismissal of the disputed mayors, but the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party boycotted new elections held in April 2024, leaving the ethnic Albanian mayors in office.

Serb mayors only retook power in the north after the October 2025 local elections. In December 2025, Serb mayors from the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party were sworn into office.