Ekrem Bajrovic, a member of Serbian forces for the length of the Kosovo warfare in 1998-ninety 9, became as soon as found responsible of warfare crimes in a retrial earlier than the Pristina Habitual Courtroom on Friday for beating, torturing and killing ethnic Albanian civilians in the municipality of Istog/Istok in Could perhaps also just 1999.
The ethnic Bosniak from Kosovo became as soon as sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment with credit due to time spent already in custody from October 19, 2022, as the court upheld the identical verdict it issued in July 2024. Bajrovic had pleaded no longer responsible to the charges.
He is additionally obliged to pay 300 euros for the judicial court cases and 100 euros to the victims’ fund.
The retrial verdict would be appealed.
The court heard that Serbian police and navy forces alongside side Bajrovic stopped a column of ethnic Albanian civilians in the village of Saradran/Staradan on Could perhaps also just 8, 1999 as they headed in direction of Albania, hunting for refuge.
The males were separated from the others and had their cash and different valuables taken from them. They were then positioned in the yard of a apartment and lined up, facing a wall. Serbian forces then beat and assaulted them, asking: “Where is NATO?” and “Where is the KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army]?” the court heard. At the least 16 of them were shot ineffective in the apartment. Handiest one survived.
The day earlier than, on Could perhaps also just 7, 1999, in the identical village, Bajrovic had participated in the arrest, kidnapping and mistreatment of one more 84 civilians. They were first and foremost separated from a column of fleeing ethnic Albanians and additionally had all their cash and valuables taken, the court found.
They were taken to the village of Gurakoc/Djurakovac and tortured. Bajrovic led the violence, the court heard, hitting one of many victims with the butt of a machine gun. The males were then transferred to the local police role where they were threatened with dying and suffered serious bodily accidents and trauma, the charges acknowledged.
In Could perhaps also just 2025, the Courtroom of Appeals upheld the Habitual Courtroom’s initial responsible verdict. Nonetheless in December 2025, it then despatched the case for retrial, calling for plenty of peep testimonies beforehand offered to the UN intervening time administration in Kosovo, UNMIK, and later to the EU rule-of-guidelines mission in Kosovo, EULEX, to be examined in court alongside the different evidence.