Court in Pristina sentenced Milun Milenković and Aleksandar Vlajić to five years each prison, and Dejan Pantić for two years, due to the allegedly committed criminal act terrorism, RTS reported.
They are accused of carrying out an armed attack on the office of the Municipal Election Commission (MEC) in the northern part Kosovska Mitrovica, in December 2022.
According to the verdict of the presiding judge, Judge Valjon Kurtaj, Miomir Vakić was acquitted.
Convicted persons have the right to appeal to the appellate court against the verdict of the primary court, and the time spent in custody will be included in their sentence.
The accused did not attend the session where the verdict was announced.
Questionable court process
The defenders of the accused Serbs pointed out shortcomings during the court process, and lawyer Ljubomir Pantović, the defender of Dejan Pantić, said that the prosecutors completely forgot what it means to drop the indictment, drop the criminal prosecution due to lack of evidence.
"With them, that does not exist here. And that is a legal obligation. All prosecutors are obliged to, when there is no evidence, not to file an indictment, or if during the procedure it is established that there is no evidence, to drop the criminal prosecution. Here, the complete opposite is happening. One empty, one chaotic, one absolutely unproven indictment stands against these four", Pantović said after the last hearing.
Who were convicted?
Due to throwing two bombs at the MEC in North Mitrovica on December 6, 2022, Dejan Pantić, a former member of the Kosovo Police, was arrested at the Jarinje crossing on December 9. This caused a crisis in the north of Kosovo and the raising of barricades by the Serbs, reports Radio Free Europe.
The barricades were removed on December 29 after a court decision allowed Pantić to be under house arrest.
Milun Milenković, known as Lune, who is presented in the media as a prominent sports worker from Kosovska Mitrovica, was arrested on June 13, 2023.
The members of the kick-boxing club "Kosovska Mitrovica" held a public training after this arrest, with which they wanted to support their arrested coach Milun Milenkovic Lunet. They gathered on the plateau behind the Technical School, showing the sports skills taught to them by the arrested Lune, the Kurir reported at the time.
Kosovo Minister of the Interior Dzeljalj Svečlja also established that Lune was one of the organizers of the attack on KFOR members in May 2023, when NATO members clashed with local Serbs in front of the municipality of Zvečan in the north of Kosovo.
Apart from the attack on the office of the MEC, Aleksandar Vlajić was sentenced to 5 years in prison on June 5 of this year for espionage.
He was arrested in 2024 on suspicion of collecting and passing classified information to the Serbian Security and Information Agency (BIA).
Vlajić pleaded guilty to espionage, while denying the attack on MEC.
During the trial, the prosecution stated that it had evidence that Miomir Vakić also participated in the attack. The messages he exchanged with the accused Dejan Pantić were presented.
To Pantić's message that "pears are shaking there", Vakić replied with "throw them an apple", and the prosecution asserted that this coded language alluded to the location of the police and the throwing of bombs.
Source: RTS / Radio Free Europe / Kosovo Online
