Zoran Vukotic sentenced to 15 years in prison for war crimes in Kosovo

The Basic Court in Pristina has sentenced Zoran Vukotić to 15 years in prison for war crimes in Kosovo.

The guilty verdict was announced against Vukotić, after the court found him guilty of the murder of 13-year-old BM, reports Betimi për Drejtësi.

According to the indictment filed in June 2023, Vukotić was accused of having acted in violation of the norms of international law in force during the conflict in Kosovo on April 18, 1999, near the cemetery in the city of Vushtrri, in complicity with unidentified persons, as a Serbian police reservist.

The indictment stated that he was complicit in the murder of 13-year-old BM, an Albanian national.

The victim, along with his uncle's son, had been riding a bicycle when Vukotić, together with other armed police officers, encountered the children. According to the indictment, the defendant fired a gun at the children from a distance of 30 meters, shooting the victim BM in the chest, who died instantly. The other child had managed to escape the shots and had hidden behind a wall.

The Special Prosecution Office had filed four indictments for war crimes against the civilian population during 1998-1999 against Vukotić, but at the proposal of his lawyer, they were merged into one case in 2024.

For the other counts of the indictment, after the case was joined, the Court said that it found no evidence against Vukotić and he was acquitted of those charges.

Former Serbian police reservist Zoran Vukotic has previously been sentenced to ten years in prison for wartime sexual violence. The case was remanded for retrial, but his conviction was confirmed in 2022. In 2023, the Court of Appeal increased his sentence to 13 years in prison.

This indictment stated that Vukotić, as a member of the police forces of the reserve unit of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, "had participated in the expulsion of the Albanian civilian population, in the commission of physical and psychological violence against them, and by using violence and other inhumane acts, had committed sexual rape against a woman of Albanian nationality."

This was the first case of conviction for such a crime by Kosovo courts./ REL (A2 Televizion)