Pristina Basic Court on Friday found former Serbian police officer Dusko Arsic guilty of involvement in the mistreatment, expulsions and murders of Kosovo Albanian residents of Pristina in 1999, alongside other Serbian police officers and paramilitaries.

Under the first-instance verdict, which can be appealed, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Prosecution witnesses accused Arsic of beating up one of the victims, taking part in the expulsion of civilians and then looting and torching their homes in Pristina between January and June 1999.

According to the indictment, Arsic also participated in the execution of a man called Brahim Shala on February 20, 1999 in the village of Butovc.

The alleged killers ordered another Kosovo Albanian, Artan Krasniqi, who was 15 years old at the time, to carry the body of the man who was shot on his back.

Arsic was accused of hitting Krasniqi in the lower back with the barrel of a machine gun. When he fell to the ground, the Serbian police and paramilitaries began abusing him physically and psychologically.

Krasniqi, who testified that Shala was still breathing and had not yet died when he was carrying him, was present in court when the judge announced the verdict on Friday.

Arsic had pleaded not guilty to all charges in November 2022.

(Source: BalkanInsight)