SERB SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS IN PRISON IN FIRST-INSTANCE RULING OVER ALLEGED WAR CRIME

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 21 /SRNA/ - Milorad Đoković from Vitomirica near Peć has been sentenced to ten years in prison in a first-instance ruling by the Basic Court in Priština over an alleged war crime committed in Kosovo and Metohija in 1999.

Presiding judge Donika Šalja stated in the verdict that Đoković, in the village of Ozdrim near Peć, had, as a "reserve police officer acting jointly with other Serbian police officers, participated in the search, beating and arrest of dozens of Albanian civilians".

She added that the time Đoković had spent in detention would be credited towards his sentence and that he would remain in custody until the verdict became final.

He was arrested in June 2022 and has been in detention ever since. Đoković was the only Serb living in Vitomirica, where his house was burned down during the March 2004 pogrom.

Milorad returned to Vitomirica in 2008.