Serbs are arrested and accused without evidence, sentences greater than the maximum

Kosovo authorities arrest and accuse Serbs without evidence, fabricate witnesses, and portray even minor offenses as war crimes, with the aim of persecuting the Serbian people, Novosti writes.

Most Serbs arrested in Kosovo, held in detention in Podujevo, are accused of alleged war crimes. In almost all cases, there is no evidence or it is collected later, and statements in favor of Serbs are automatically erased, Novosti reports.

The goal, the media adds, has long been clear: to intimidate Serbs and force them to leave Kosovo, and to prevent anyone from even thinking about returning to their ancestral land.

Every Serbian accused of committing a war crime in Kosovo is already sentenced to a long prison term and deprived of the right to a fair trial, especially since 2018, when the EULEX mission handed over justice to Kosovo authorities.

The biggest paradox in Kosovo's legal system is what is considered a war crime.

"Even a simple slap, if it occurred, for example, between 1998 and the end of 1999, is presented as a war crime in Pristina's judiciary," Novosti state.

"Serb Nenad Ristic from Caglavica is charged with a war crime, accused of allegedly forcing Albanians to drink rakia and sing Serbian songs," lawyer Ljubomir Pantovic says.

According to him, Albanians need as many arrested Serbs in prisons as possible to show the international community that the Serbian people committed crimes in Kosovo. Therefore, they arrest the innocent and find false witnesses.

Serbian lawyers emphasize that the reasons Albanians falsely accuse Serbs are mostly related to property. They are often accused by Albanians who have taken or want to buy their land, houses, apartments, and there is a standard pattern in which Serbs are arrested. First, they are arrested, and then evidence is sought.

The most illustrative example is Zoran Kostic (63) from Priluzje, who was arrested on September 20, 2023, and the prosecutor authorized the collection of evidence against him eight days later.

"Although such a thing is unheard of in judicial practice because in all legal systems, suspects are arrested based on evidence or at least reasonable suspicion, in the case of most arrested Serbs, evidence is sought only after their arrest and detention," emphasizes lawyer Predrag Miljkovic, defender of Kostic, who has been in custody at the High-Risk Prison in Grdovac near Podujevo since his arrest.

In that prison, built in 2014 with EU funds, there are currently about 80 Serbs, most of whom are accused of alleged war crimes.

"The intention of Pristina authorities is to arrest as many Serbs as possible and accuse them of alleged war crimes to justify the formation of some kind of Institute for Crimes," lawyers point out.

The fact that sentences are even passed without witnesses is evident from the case of Goran Stanisic, from Slovinje near Lipljan. He was sentenced to 20 years for alleged war crimes by a first-instance verdict, even though the main witness of the prosecution did not recognize him as guilty. Moreover, lawyer Pantovic points out that Stanisic was punished with two decades in prison, although the Supreme Court of Kosovo decided that the maximum sentence could be up to 15 years.

Zoran Djokic from Pec was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Although the prosecution's indictment failed in that case, after the end of the evidentiary process, the lawyer of the injured parties brought two new witnesses who claimed to be victims of Djokic's war crimes.

One of those arrested is Gavrilo Milosavljevic (63), a Serb from Istok, who, as a displaced person, has been coming to Kosovo since 1999, searching for his kidnapped mother.

"He planned to reclaim her apartment in Istok, and on the very day he managed to obtain the property deed, he was arrested and taken into custody in Podujevo," lawyer Dejan Vasic says.