Slajjan Trajkovic sentenced to ten years in prison for war crimes in Vushtrri

2025-12-26 12:16:11, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Basic Court in Pristina has sentenced Slajjan Trajkovic to ten years in prison for war crimes in the municipality of Vushtrri. Trajkovic was convicted on only one count of the indictment, and on three others, the trial panel said it was not proven that he committed those acts, reports Betimi për ?erjdësi.

According to the decision, Trajkovic will be credited with time spent in detention.

The Special Prosecution Office welcomed the pronouncement of the guilty verdict against Trajkovic, adding that it remains committed to prosecuting war crimes in Kosovo, "with the aim of ensuring justice for the victims and establishing criminal responsibility for the perpetrators, in accordance with international standards."

The indictment against him was filed on July 12, 2023 by the Special Prosecution Office, after he was arrested on December 15, 2022. After the arrest, officials in Serbia stated that Trajkovic was a former member of the Kosovo Police.

The crimes for which Trajkovic was accused, according to the Special Prosecution, were committed in 1998-99 in the village of Reznik in Vushtrri/Vu?itrn and the surrounding villages of this municipality.

According to the indictment, Trajkovic was a member of the Serbian police and military forces and "contributed to the murders, raids, beatings, mistreatment, arrests, torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, keeping in conditions of slavery, the expulsion of thousands of Albanian civilians, as well as the measures of looting, burning and destruction of the homes of the civilian population of Albanian nationality."

In recent years, Kosovo has increased the number of indictments in absentia for war crimes during the last war, but also of the pronouncement of verdicts.

In August of this year, the Special Prosecution Office submitted to the court an indictment in absentia against 21 suspects for the forcible expulsion of more than 800,000 Albanian civilians from Kosovo during the war.

During the war in Kosovo, from 1998 to 1999, over 13,000 civilians were killed, while thousands more disappeared. Nearly 1,600 people remain missing, the majority of them Albanians.

Since the end of the war, dozens of people have been convicted of war crimes before local and international institutions. /REL