Government of Kosovo

Montenegrin Interior Minister Sergej Sekulovic at a press conference in Podgorica. Photo: Government of Montenegro

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.

Azem Vlasi claims that is why the role of the United States in Kosovo and beyond is irreplaceable, reports Koha.
Vlasi pointed out that the moment will come when the United States will really join the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, and that it will not happen when Kosovo invites them, but when they find it appropriate - in the final stages of the dialogue.

First, let me say that before judge Simmons was elevated to the presidency of the Assembly of Judges, he was also serving in the same capacity as an international criminal judge from the United Kingdom. I sat with him on the trial panel in a murder case in Prizren in 2011, and found his participation to be highly professional.

Kosovo's government, led by Vetevendosje's Albin Kurti, is preparing to reintroduce reciprocity measures against Serbia, which were lifted by the former government because they were considered an obstacle to the EU-facilitated dialogue.

She said that she thinks that it was logical for her to be included in the procedure before the Kosovo court for the murder of the leader of the Civic Initiative "Serbia, Democracy, Justice", but that she has not received such an invitation until today.

The lawyer for murdered political party leader Oliver Ivanovic said on Tuesday that allegations made by Malcolm Simmons, former head judge at the EU's rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, showed that the war crimes prosecution of the Kosovo Serb politician was a "fabricated court case".

Kosovo and Serbia delegations again exchanged familiar accusations of not fulfilling the obligations they have undertaken at the latest round of the EU-facilitated dialogue on normalization of relations between the two countries.

The two delegations met on Tuesday in Brussels convened by the EU's envoy for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak.

On Monday, Kosovo's Pristina Basic Court sentenced a former Kosovo Serb policeman, Zoran Vukotic, to ten years in prison for rape and for participating in the expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians during the war in Kosovo in 1999.

The ruling was called historic because it the first time someone had been convicted in Kosovo of sexual abuse during the 1998-9 war.

The US Deputy Assistant of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Matthew Palmer, on Sunday said that Kosovo needs to fulfill its obligation to set up an Association of Serb-majority Municipalities.