Pantovic: Stanisic's 15-year prison sentence confirmed; another in a series of such verdicts against the Serbs

Goran Stanisic's lawyer, Ljubomir Pantovic, confirmed for Kosovo Online that the Supreme Court of Kosovo confirmed Stanisic’s 15-year prison sentence.

Pantovic said that the Supreme Court had decided on his request for the protection of legality.

"That request was rejected and the prison sentence of 15 years was confirmed," he said.

Pantovic reminded that Stanisic had been sentenced to 20 years in the first-instance proceedings before the Basic Court in Pristina, and that, following the defense's appeal, the Court of Appeals had reduced that sentence to 15 years.

"After that, I filed a request for the protection of legality as an extraordinary legal remedy, and the day before yesterday I received a verdict from the Supreme Court of Kosovo that that request was rejected," Pantovic said.

He points out that it is another in a series of verdicts that have been prepared in advance for every Serb or non-Albanian who was arrested on charges and later accused of war crimes.

"Everyone was convicted here; the only question is the amount of the sentence. It is just one more in a series of such verdicts," Pantovic says.

According to him, his next move is to submit a constitutional appeal to the Constitutional Court of Kosovo for violation of the right to a fair trial.

"That is the only legal remedy that remains. The Constitutional Court of Kosovo is the next instance and the last one. All legal means are exhausted there, all possibilities to challenge, and change that sentence," Pantovic concluded.

Stanisic was arrested at the Jarinje crossing in July 2019 on charges of participating in the murder of five family members from the village of Slovinje near Lipljan in 1999, as well as for expelling and participating in the murders of the Albanian civilian population.

He is in prison in Podujevo.