The court in Pristina has sentenced Miloš Plesković from Prizren to 15 years in prison in a first-instance ruling for an alleged war crime against the civilian population of Albanian nationality.
The time spent in detention will be counted towards his sentence, stated Judge Rahman Bećiri, president of the three-member judicial panel composed of judges of Albanian nationality, in the verdict.
In the decision, which is subject to appeal to the Court of Appeals, Judge Bećiri claims “that on September 1, 1998, as a member of the police forces, Plesković participated in the murder of three Albanian civilians in Prizren.”
Plesković’s detention measure continues.
The presentation of evidence and witness testimonies in this case concluded on Monday, July 28.
After the closing arguments, Plesković’s defense attorney, Jovana Filipović, stated that she had reached the conclusion of her client’s innocence, adding that a murder did occur, and there are three victims, but there is no one who saw the accused at the given moment, as the only witness at that time, who was allegedly there, stated that he presumed the murder happened half an hour after he left the scene.
Filipović pointed out that the problem in all of this, as in many other proceedings, lies with some witnesses who appear in the case. The vast majority of them state that they only heard about any involvement of the accused in the acts he is charged with after his arrest, that they heard about it from the media, and that they were informed via Facebook.
“There were also witnesses who stated that the victims’ brother showed them Miloš’s photo a year and a half before their statement and similar things, so apart from that one person who is not an eyewitness, there is no other, nor any other witness statement that would confirm that Plesković was there on that day and that he could have committed this act he is charged with,” said Filipović.
Miloš Plesković had again denied his involvement in the murder of three Albanians during 1998 before the court in Pristina in mid-July, for which he is charged in the indictment, and for which he has been in detention for almost two years.
Plesković was arrested in September 2023 in Ugljare near Kosovo Polje, where he lived as a displaced person from Prizren until his arrest.
A criminal complaint was filed against Plesković on suspicion that in September 1998, in the Hoća Mahala neighborhood of Prizren, he participated in the murder of three civilians of Albanian nationality.
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Source: RTS, Photo: Kosovo online