During opening statements on Thursday at Prishtina Basic Court in the trial for the attack by armed Serbs on a police patrol in the Kosovo village of Banjska in September 2023, which left one police officer dead, the prosecution claimed it will prove that the incident was staged by a well-trained and organised group.

Blagoje Spasojevic, Vladimir Tolic and Dusan Maksimovic are charged with terrorism and with endangering the constitutional order of Kosovo. They have all pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutor Naim Abazi said the prosecution “will prove that the group was well organised, trained, and had the intent to commit the attack on September 24, 2023”.

The prosecutor said that, “on the critical day in the village of Banjska, I was present at the scene of the incident, and during my time there I observed one of the most serious scenes and images of the most serious weaponry, which did not resemble a normal crime scene.

“The weapons that were distributed in these areas, including weapons such as automatic weapons, long-barrelled guns, sniper rifles, mines and hand grenades, were all seized and confiscated by our authorities, which will be documented through photographs,” Abazi added.

Abazi told the court that among the most important evidence material is “videos and recordings of a meeting on October 13, 2021, held in Raska, Serbia [between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Serb representatives], which will prove the first beginnings of the organisation of the group”. The Serbian state has denied any involvement in the Banjska attack.

The prosecutor also showed videos taken from confiscated drones in Banjska after the attack, which he said prove that the group “for a long time had been conducting physical exercises and tactical exercises with various weapons …explosives and military vehicles”.

According to the indictment, several days before the attack on the police patrol in Banjska, the armed group underwent training at the Pasuljanske Livade military training facility in Serbia.

Prosecutors cite as evidence footage found on a drone confiscated from the group and dated September 19-20, 2023.

The indictment charges Serb businessman Milan Radoicic and 42 others with terrorism and endangering the constitutional order of the country. Only three suspects have been arrested – trial defendants Spasojevic, Tolic and Maksimovic.

Spasojevic, who was arrested at the scene, said on Thursday: “I did not attack anyone with explosives, I did not attack anyone with heavy weapons, I did not kill anyone, I did not injure anyone. I have never had the intention of separating northern Kosovo and uniting it with Serbia”.

Tolic told the court he was in Banjska on the day, “but the motive for my presence there, and my participation in that event, are completely different from what is stated in the indictment, I was not at any moment able to assume what could happen there, and I was not able to be aware of what the consequences would be”.

Tolic, who was also arrested at the scene and was injured, told the court that it was “only during medical treatment in the hospital that I realised a police officer had lost his life, which I am very sorry about. I will add that I, Vladimir Tolic, did not shoot anyone on September 24 and did not have access to explosive devices.”

Jovana Filipovic, the lawyer for Maksimovic, who was arrested one day after the attack, told the court that her client was grilling food with his friends during the attack, and the evidence from the prosecution does not prove his involvement. “There was no trace of gunpowder on his hands,” Filipovic told the court.

The lawyer for the family of Afrim Bunjaku, the policeman killed in the attack, said the family want life imprisonment for the accused.

Koci told the court that “the terrorist group’s goal” was to dissolve Kosovo as a state, so northern Kosovo could be joined to Serbia.

“Life imprisonment is the minimum that Afrim Bunjaku’s wife deserves,” Koci said.