\n A Kosovo court handed three men lengthy jail sentences on Friday for taking part in a failed armed secession attempt by Serb separatists in the country's north in 2023.\n<\/p>\n
\n Charged with terrorism, two were sentenced to life in jail while the third was sentenced to 30 years for their part in a deadly clash between dozens of heavily armed men, led by Kosovo Serb Milan Radoicic, and Kosovo police in Banjska, close to the Serbian border.\n<\/p>\n
\n One Kosovo police officer and three Serb gunmen were killed in the hours-long gun battle, with the group sheltering inside a monastery before fleeing from police into Serbia.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It is confirmed that they tried to secede the north of Kosovo and join it with Serbia,\" Ngadhnjim Arrni, the chair of the three-judge panel, said while delivering the verdict.\n<\/p>\n
\n Only one of the defendants attended the hearing in person. Dozens of reporters, family members and onlookers packed Pristina's Basic Court to watch the high-profile verdict.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a lengthy indictment, prosecutors had argued for life sentences for all three men.\n<\/p>\n
\n But lawyers for the men, who had pleaded not guilty to the charges, argued that there was no evidence to support their role in the attack.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Restarted trial -\n<\/p>\n
\n During closing arguments, defence lawyer Milos Delevic said the men had faced a \"pre-created atmosphere that the accused are already guilty\" in \"one of the weightiest\" trials since Kosovo's war for independence against Serbia.\n<\/p>\n
\n .\n<\/p>\n
\n A total of 45 Serbs were charged, including Radoicic, but only three faced the court.\n<\/p>\n
\n Prosecutor's requests to have the others tried in absentia were rejected.\n<\/p>\n
\n International arrest warrants have been issued for the remaining suspects, who are believed to be in Serbia.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kosovo's acting president, Albulena Haxhiu, welcomed the sentence as \"proof\" that attacks on the \"security of the country will not go unpunished,\" but said justice had not been fully served until Serbia acted.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It will only be concluded when all those responsible, including the terrorist Milan Radoicic, are brought to justice,\" she said in a statement on Facebook.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Draconian' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Radoicic, a former vice-president of the Serb List -- Kosovo's main Serb party -- has previously admitted to Belgrade authorities that he led the attack, but it remains unclear if he is under investigation in Serbia.\n<\/p>\n
\n He also faces an outstanding warrant over alleged war crimes during Kosovo's 1990s conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Serbian government office for Kosovo labelled the verdict \"draconian\" and accused the court of being politically pressured by the \"anti-Serb regime in Pristina\".\n<\/p>\n
\n While the Serb List condemned the trial as unfair and said it \"further endangers the security and rights of the Serbian people\".\n<\/p>\n
\n It said it expected the trio's appeal against the sentence to be decided by judges of Serbian nationality.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 1998-1999 Kosovo war between independence-seeking guerrillas and Serbian forces ended after a NATO air campaign drove Serbian forces from the territory.\n<\/p>\n
\n Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia have remained high since the war, which killed around 13,000 people.\n<\/p>\n
\n Pristina declared independence in 2008, a move Belgrade refuses to recognise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Kosovo court handed three men lengthy jail sentences on Friday for taking part in a failed armed secession attempt by Serb separatists in the country's north in 2023. Charged with terrorism, two were sentenced to life in jail while the third was sentenced to 30 years for their part in a deadly clash between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-158401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n