Ekrem Bajrovic sentenced to 12 years in prison for war crimes in Kosovo

2026-07-03 12:12:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The court in Pristina sentenced Ekrem Bajrovi? on Friday to 12 years in prison, in his retrial for war crimes against the civilian population in Kosovo during the 1998-99 war.

Bajrovic was found guilty again of committing war crimes against Albanian civilians in the villages of Staradran, Zallc, Gurrakoc and other surrounding villages in the Istog Municipality in early 1999.

He was sentenced in a retrial after the case against him was returned for retrial by the Supreme Court last year.

The Basic Court had sentenced him to 12 years in prison in July 2024, and the Court of Appeal had confirmed that verdict, rejecting the defense's appeal in 2025.

However, the Supreme Court accepted the defense's appeal in 2025 and overturned the verdict against Bajrovi?, saying that several witnesses had stated during the trial that they had also given statements to UNMIK and EULEX authorities about this case, but they were not in the case files.

The court had assessed that these statements should be obtained and examined together with other evidence.

Bajrovic also has the right to appeal the current sentence in the First Instance Court.

What crimes was Bajrovi? convicted of?
According to the verdict, on May 7 and 8, 1999, Bajrovi? participated in an action by Serbian forces against the Albanian civilian population in the villages of Istog, civilians were forced to leave their homes and were ordered to head towards Albania.

Bajrovic separated the men and women from the column heading towards Albania, looting them, and then Serbian forces took them to a house in Staradran, “shooting at least 16 civilians of Albanian nationality,” according to the court.

Also, according to the court, on May 7, 1999, Bajrovic participated in the "arrest and mistreatment of 84 civilians of Albanian nationality, so that initially the injured [men] were separated from the other column of civilians, all their money and other valuables were taken from them, and then they were all sent to Gurrakoc to the Sh.S. bar, where they were mistreated and tortured in an inhumane manner."

Whereas, on May 8, 1999, the detainees were taken to the police station in Gurrakoc, where the column was led by the accused Bajrovi?.

Bajrovi? will also have time spent in detention counted towards his sentence, starting from October 19, 2022.

During the war in Kosovo, more than 13,000 civilians – mostly Albanians – were killed, while thousands more went missing.

More than 1,500 people are still missing, most of them Albanians.

Recently, Kosovar authorities have arrested numerous suspects and filed a series of indictments for war crimes in Kosovo.

Meanwhile, since the end of the war, dozens of suspects have been convicted of these crimes before local and international institutions.

Initially after the war, respectively from 2000 and 2008, war crimes in Kosovo were investigated by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), and from 2008, by the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX).

In 2018, EULEX handed over the cases to local justice authorities./REL