Kosovo Serb Ex-Policeman Faces Retrial for Attacking Civilians

Kosovo's Court of Appeals in Pristina. Photo: BIRN/Atdhe Mulla.

The first-instance verdict in May last year found that Vukotic, as a reservist at the police station in Vushtrri/Vucitrn and as a prison guard, participated in the illegal detention of a large number of ethnic Albanian civilians at the Smrekonica prison in Mitrovica from May 1999 to early June, in co-perpetration with other members of Serb forces.

During that period, the civilian prisoners were subjected to inhumane treatment, torture and beatings, for which Vukotic was personally responsible.

One of the witnesses said that Vukotic selected prisoners with the same surname - brothers, fathers and sons - and made them beat each other up.

Vukotic will also face a retrial for participating in other crimes in the Vushtrri/Vucitrn area in 1999 after initially being acquitted of the offences in May last year, according an announcement from the court.

He will be retried for participating in an attack, in co-perpetration with other members of Serb forces, on ethnic Albanian civilians who were travelling in a column from the village of Upper Studime to Lower Studime near Vushtrri/Vucitrn between May 2 and 3, 1999.

The Court of Appeals found that the facts determined by the first-instance court's verdict were unclear and contradicted the statements of witnesses, thus violating criminal procedures.