Pristina Court Sentences Two War Crimes Accused to Imprisonment

2026-03-18 19:36:07, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Basic Court in Pristina has found guilty and sentenced two former members of Serbia's police and military forces to prison for war crimes in Kosovo during the 1998-99 war.

Zoran Kostic was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Dragan Milovic was sentenced to 7 years in prison during a hearing on Wednesday, the court announced.

The court said that, in sentencing, they would be credited for time spent in detention, but did not provide details on when they were arrested.

They have the right to appeal the sentence to the Court of Appeal of Kosovo.

According to the indictment filed on May 16, 2024, Zoran Kosti?, as a member of the Serbian police forces, armed and in uniform, was directly involved in crimes against Albanian civilians, more precisely against the Ujkani family in an attack organized by Serbian forces on this family's house in Reznik, Vushtrri in May 1999.

Kosti? also participated in the looting of the homes of Albanian residents, then the burning of houses and the killing of unarmed civilians in the village of Reznik.

Eight people, among them most of the Ujkani family, were killed in this attack.

Kosti? was also convicted of ordering the expulsion of the Albanian population from their homes.

Meanwhile, Milovi? was convicted of mistreating, torturing and beating Albanian civilians when Serbian forces rounded up around 20,000 civilian residents of Vushtrri/Vu?itrn to the city's cemetery in 1999.

According to the indictment, Milovi?, together with several armed Serbian police officers, separated the Albanian civilian population, and forced them to place their hands tied behind their heads and kneel on the ground, repeatedly hitting some with iron rods, others with wooden sticks and the butts of their weapons.

During the war in Kosovo, from 1998 to 1999, more than 13,000 civilians 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, from 2000 and 2008, respectively, 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