ANOTHER SERB IN KIM DECLARED GUILTY OF A CRIME HE DID NOT COMMIT: Srđan from Leposavić sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison! (VIDEO)

The Basic Court in Pristina has sentenced Srđan Lazović from Leposavić in the first instance to 12 years and six months in prison, declaring him guilty of an alleged war crime in the vicinity of Mališevo during the conflict in Kosovo and Metohija in 1998.

The indictment charged Srđan Lazović with participating in the arrest, mistreatment, and expulsion of Albanian civilians in the village of Panorce, Mališevo municipality, in 1998, together with other members of the Serbian military and police forces.

The time spent in detention will be included in Lazović’s sentence, and his defense has the right to appeal to the Court of Appeals.

During the trial, a defense witness from Leposavić explained that during 1998, Lazović was employed by him in forest cutting. The witness stated that Lazović was mobilized into the police at the beginning of the bombing on March 24 and that this was the only period he did not work, whereas in September, October, and even November 1998, he was employed by him.

Lazović was arrested on June 27, 2024, while returning with his family from Raška to Leposavić, and has been in custody since then.

This is the second verdict by the Court in Pristina for war crimes against Albanians in the last two days, and the third in the last 40 days. In addition to Lazović, Muhamed Aljidemaj was sentenced yesterday in Pristina, and Slađan Trajković was sentenced at the end of last year.

Lawyer Miljković: We will prove in the second instance that a case of mistaken identity occurred

The defense of Srđan Lazović is convinced that in the second-instance proceedings, they will prove that a case of mistaken identity occurred in his instance.

“The defense provided two expert reports, from a digital forensics expert and a facial recognition expert, which undoubtedly establish that person ID1 is not Srđan Lazović due to all the differences in appearance based on morphological characteristics. Beyond any doubt, we proved to the court and everyone willing to accept facts that Srđan Lazović is not the person who was in Panorce on September 3, 1998,” said Lazović’s defense attorney, Predrag Miljković.

He expressed surprise as to why the court did not want to see the evidence, objective and impartial facts, but instead made the decision based on three witnesses and a protected witness.

“The protected witness said he doesn’t know where Srđan was during the war, that he knows nothing about Srđan in 1998 and 1999, but concluded that Srđan is in that picture alone, just like that, as if I were looking at and reading some newspaper,” Miljković reported.

In his opinion, the proceedings ended catastrophically, and it is another in a series of convictions that have absolutely nothing to do with what was established in court.

“Furthermore, we established in court that the prosecution witnesses gave false testimony. Today, we announce the filing of criminal charges against all those witnesses for giving false testimony. Of course, we will appeal this verdict within the legal deadline, and I am one hundred percent sure that this verdict will not stand at the court of appeals,” Miljković concluded.

Office for KiM: Lazović sentenced based on false and unreliable testimony

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija announced that Kurti’s politically instructed judiciary continues with draconian punishments against Serbs, declaring them guilty without valid evidence, objective witnesses, and in processes accompanied by numerous violations of the rights of the accused.

The Office assesses that this is also the case with today’s first-instance verdict against Srđan Lazović, who was convicted for alleged war crimes based on false, unreliable, inconsistent, and fabricated testimonies of alleged eyewitnesses, who changed their statements during the hearings, refuted their own claims, and actually became entangled in their own lies.

It adds that the accused Serb, at the time of the execution of the act he is charged with, was not even part of the police forces, but was engaged in forest cutting, which was also confirmed in court.

“The fact that numerous forensic pieces of evidence and findings by international experts, both in digital forensics and photo recognition forensics, which were presented during the process itself, refuted the claims of the Pristina judiciary that Lazović is indeed in the photograph attached as crucial evidence, testifies that this is a violation of the basic right to a fair trial for Srđan Lazović,” the Office states.

During the trial, it was undoubtedly established, the Office emphasizes, based on all the morphological characteristics stated by the experts, that the person claimed to be Srđan Lazović is, in fact, not him.

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija stated that it will inform relevant international missions about the verdict in order to enable Lazović a fair and just trial, during which he would prove his innocence.