Pristina Basic Court

The Court of Appeals in Pristina on Monday rejected appeals from the defence and prosecution and upheld the 12-year sentence handed down to Zoran Djokic for war crimes against civilians in 1999.

"The verdict contains sufficient and convincing reasons for establishing the facts clearly," the court said in the verdict.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the verdict finding former Serb reservist policeman Nenad Arsic guilty of war crimes and confirmed his six-year prison sentence.

Arsic was found guilty of committing the crimes on May 21, 1999 during a police operation against Kosovo Albanian civilians in Pristina's Emshir neighbourhood.

Ivan Todosijevic, a Kosovo Serb MP from the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party, did not appear on Wednesday at noon as ordered by the court to begin his two-year prison sentence for inciting ethnic, racial or religious intolerance.

Florent Gashi, spokesperson for the Kosovo Correctional Service told BIRN that "the person in question so far has not appeared to serve his sentence".

Pristina Basic Court found Goran Stanisic guilty on Tuesday of war crimes against ethnic Albanian civilians in the town of Lipjan/Lipljan during the Kosovo war in 1999 and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

In closing arguments at Pristina Basic Court on Thursday, the prosecution said it had been incontrovertibly proved that 13 ethnic Albanian civilians were killed in the village of Sllovi/Slovinje in the Lipjan/Lipljan municipality of central Kosovo during an attack by Serbian forces in April 1999, and called for Goran Stanisic to be found guilty of involvement.

Belgrade Higher Court has dismissed a defamation case launched by controversial Kosovo Serb businessman and politician Milan Radoicic against rival Kosovo Serb politician Rada Trajkovic, who accused him of being implicated in the shooting of Oliver Ivanovic in 2018.

Risto Jovanovic (second from right) at Pristina Basic Court on Wednesday. Photo: BIRN.

The court sentenced him to six months in prison but ruled that Jovanovic can pay a fine of 6,700 euros instead of serving the sentence, which his defence agreed to do.

Members of the assembly of Srpska Lista, the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, on Tuesday re-elected Goran Rakic as president and Milan Radoicic as a party vice-president by unanimous decision. The assembly also elected Igor Simic and Dalibor Jevtic as vice-presidents.

The trial for the murder of Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic opened on Tuesday at Pristina Basic Court with the prosecution saying it will prove that the defendants participated in removing obstacles to the killing, abused their official positions and collaborated with the killers, who have not yet been arrested.

A court in Kosovo has ordered 30 days of detention for the head of Independent Media Commission, IMC, Luan Latifi, and its Director of Finances, Arben Bilalli, a day after they were arrested in Pristina on bribery suspicions.

The Pristina Basic Court on Thursday said there was grounded suspicion that both Bilalli and Latifi have been involved in a graft affair.