Retrial: Dushko Arsic sentenced to 13 years in prison for war crimes in Kosovo

The verdict against Arsić was announced on Monday by the presiding judge Vesel Ismaili and members Lutfi Shala and Violeta Namani-Hajra, reports “Oath for Justice”.

Judge Ismaili said that the time spent in pre-trial detention is taken into account in the prison sentence. Arsiq’s sentence will be extended until the verdict becomes final, but not longer than the sentence imposed.

The defendant is also obligated to pay the costs of the procedure – a lump sum of 200 euros for the court and another 100 euros for the Crime Victims Compensation Fund, all within 15 days from the finality of the judgment.

The injured party, Artan Krasniqi, is directed to a regular civil-judicial dispute for the property-legal claim.

The Basic Court in Pristina sentenced the accused Arsić to 13 years in prison on February 2, 2024. However, the Court of Appeals sent the case back for a retrial.

According to the indictment filed by the Special Prosecutor’s Office on November 2, 2022, it is said that there is a well-founded suspicion that Arsiq, in collusion with other members of the Serbian Police and paramilitary groups, in the months of January-June 1999, participated in the expulsion and displacement of citizens from Prishtina and surroundings. The indictment accuses Arsiq that, together with the other group, they started looting houses, and then, with the aim of damaging the property of Albanians, they set it on fire.

The indictment also makes Arsiq responsible for the mistreatment of Albanian civilians, injuries, as well as murder.

Arsić was accused of having participated in the execution of the now deceased B.Sh., so that on April 20, 1999, in the village of Butovc in the Municipality of Prishtina, in the place called “the Macedonian cemetery”, while the victim was walking, they shot him with an automatic rifle and after hitting him, they ordered the injured party AK, who was 15 years old at the time, to carry the body of the victim B.Sh. on his back even though the injured party had suffered significant physical injuries because the accused had previously physically and psychologically abused him, these actions sanctioned according to local laws, customs of war and the International Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols.

With this, Arsić was accused of having committed the criminal offense of “War crimes against the civilian population” under Article 142 in conjunction with Article 22 of the Criminal Code of the SFRY.