Office for Kosovo and Metohija: Draconian sentence for Mrkic ethnically motivated and a continuation of the persecution of the Serbian people

The draconian sentence handed down by the court in Pristina to Ivan Mrkic, a respectable Serb from northern Kosovo, who was sentenced to 17 months of actual imprisonment, is ethnically motivated and represents a continuation of the persecution and retaliation against members of the Serbian people, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija stated.

“While Albanian police officers go unpunished for choking a Serbian high school senior in Kosovska Mitrovica, brutally beating Serbian children Dara and Kristijan from Zvecan, and shooting Stefan and Milos from Gotovusa on Christmas Eve, a respectable Serb receives a disproportionately harsh prison sentence simply for physically defending himself from an attack?” the statement reads.

It emphasizes that “it has long been known that in Kosovo and Metohija there is neither law nor justice for Serbs, and no rule of law, that verdicts are handed down solely based on ethnicity, and this kind of case is unprecedented in the history of the judiciary.”

“For this reason, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija will inform international representatives about the legal violence to which Mrkic has been subjected, and will demand that they closely monitor the case and ensure fairness in the proceedings,” the statement concludes.