Prosecution to appeal Mehmetaj’s verdict of six years in prison

The Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office will appeal the verdict sentencing Nezir Mehmetaj to six years in prison for war crimes against civilians committed in co-perpetration in the village of Rudice, Kosovo, in 1999, it was confirmed to Kosovo Online.

According to the Prosecutor’s response to our portal: "The Higher Court in Belgrade today delivered a verdict finding Nezir Mehmetaj guilty and sentencing him to six years in prison for committing the crime of war crimes against the civilian population under Article 142(1) of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), in co-perpetration under Article 22 of the FRY Criminal Code."

The statement adds that:

"During June and July 1999, in the municipality of Klina, Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, as a member of an organized armed group of Kosovo Albanians, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), together with multiple unidentified members of the same group, Mehmetaj, acting under prior agreement, during a non-international armed conflict aimed at creating ethnically pure territory, forcibly took civilian Ramadan Jelaj from the village of Rudice in late June 1999. Jelaj was subsequently disappeared, and his remains have not been found to this day."

Signed by public prosecutor Vasilije Seratlic, the statement also notes that the Higher Court in Belgrade did not convict Mehmetaj for the following alleged actions during the same period in Rudice:

"Together with unidentified members of the KLA, arriving at the home of Mijajlo Dasic in Rudice, forcibly abducting Dasic Dusan, Dasic Jovanka, Dasic Mijajlo, Dasic Dragutin, and Dasic Dragan, placing them in a van, and taking them to an unknown location where they were killed under undetermined circumstances. Their remains have not been found. Additionally, Mehmetaj was not convicted of abducting Zorka Siljkovic from her home and killing her under undetermined circumstances, with her remains also not located to this day. The court did not find him guilty of plundering and burning three houses belonging to Zivan Vulic, as well as the homes of Mijajlo Dasic, Januz Talamishaj, Binak Noshaj, Andjelko Vulic, Milutin Vulic, Slavko Vulic, and the Ahmetgjekaj family, all in Rudice. Mehmetaj was also not convicted of torturing and abusing civilians from Rudice, including Ahmet Malisheva, Binak Noshaj, and two unidentified Roma individuals. Additionally, at another time, several minors of Roma and Egyptian ethnicity were forced at gunpoint to leave the village and never returned."

The prosecution concludes its response by stating that it will appeal the verdict.