Jelena Đukanović, an OSCE official accused of espionage, was sentenced today at the Basic Court in Pristina to six years in prison in the first instance.
The time spent in custody will be included in this sentence, KoSSev reports.
Đukanović was arrested on February 28 last year in North Mitrovica.
An indictment was filed against her for espionage, specifically cooperation with the Serbian Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) and Aleksandar Vlajić, who has already been convicted for the criminal offense of espionage.
At the first hearing, as well as in the closing of the proceedings, she pleaded not guilty to the acts she was charged with.
Đukanović was accused of continuously working for the interests of the Serbian intelligence service (BIA), and that in this way she “endangered the constitutional order, the security of the citizens of Kosovo, but also of the OSCE where she was employed.”
Prosecutor Bekim Kodraliu said that she was in contact with BIA officials, and especially with Vlajić, otherwise a former member of the Kosovo Police, who pleaded guilty to that offense.
In the closing words, the prosecutor requested the maximum prison sentence for Jelena Đukanović.
On the other hand, her defense considered the obtaining of evidence from Đukanović’s phone to be illegal, believing that those alleged pieces of evidence were not reliable, nor were the others presented in this procedure.
Like Đukanović, her defense claimed throughout the proceedings that the OSCE official did not commit the criminal offense she was charged with, and an acquittal was requested.
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Source: N1; Photo: Printscreen Kosovo Online