Valon Kurtaj

Kosovo's Supreme Court on Thursday made public its ruling confirming the sentencing of Goran Stanisic to 15 years' imprisonment for war crimes against ethnic Albanian civilians in the town of Lipjan/Lipljan during the Kosovo war in 1999.

The Supreme Court ruling upheld the previous Court of Appeals verdict convicting Serb wartime reservist policeman Stanisic.

Milena Popovic, the widow of Kosovo Serb politician, Oliver Ivanovic, who was shot dead outside his party's office in January 2018, has asked the Pristina Basic Court to make it possible for her to testify from Serbia, saying she was frightened because of the political situation in Kosovo, the presiding judge in the case said on Tuesday.

Valon Kurtaj, head of the judging panel in the trial of defendants accused of involvement in the 2018 assassination of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic, told Pristina Basic Court on Tuesday that the court is facing a series of difficulties in contacting witnesses who live in Serb-majority parts of Kosovo and in Serbia itself.

Ksenija Bozovic, who was the vice-president of Oliver Ivanovic's Freedom, Democracy, Justice party, declined on Tuesday to tell Pristina Basic Court the names of organised criminal groups which the slain politician warned her about before his murder in Mitrovica in Kosovo in January 2018.

Pristina Basic Court found Goran Stanisic guilty on Tuesday of war crimes against ethnic Albanian civilians in the town of Lipjan/Lipljan during the Kosovo war in 1999 and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

The trial began by verifying the identities of the accused and acquainting them with their rights.
At the suggestion of the lawyer, the indictment was not read to them because they were already familiar with it, and all the accused stated that they understood the allegations of the indictment and that they were not guilty, RTS reports.

The start of the much-anticipated trial of six people accused of involvement in the murder of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic was postponed on Monday until February 11, 2020.