The Supreme Court of Kosovo has acquitted the Serb List official Ivan Todosijević of all charges of hate speech in his statement denying the massacre of Racak.
The decision means that the previous conviction, where he was sentenced to one year in prison, is also annulled.
His lawyer Nebojša Vlajić confirmed the news of his release from all charges to Radio Free Europe.
“The decision of the Supreme Court is final, there are no more appeals or procedures, Mr. Todosijević is a free man,” Vlajić said.
Ivan Todosijević was tried twice for “incitement to hatred and intolerance”. The first time he was sentenced to two years in prison, but the Supreme Court of Kosovo decided at the end of 2021 to return the case to the beginning.
In a retrial at the Basic Court in Pristina, he was sentenced to one year in prison.
The trial against him was conducted due to hate speech. Todosijević stated in March 2019 that the reason for the “NATO aggression” against the Yugoslav army’s barracks in 1999 was the “so-called humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo and the fabricated massacre of Racak”.
Todosijević is a member of the leadership of the Serb List, the largest party of Serbs in Kosovo, which is supported by Belgrade. He is also the mayor of the parallel Serbian municipality of Zvecan.
At the time when Todosijević made the statements about the Racak massacre, he held the position of Minister of Local Self-Government Administration in the Government of Kosovo. He was later dismissed by then Prime Minister of Kosovo Ramush Haradinaj.
In addition to calling the events in Racak a “fabrication”, in his statements on the 20th anniversary of NATO bombings against former Yugoslavia, Todosijević also said that “Albanian terrorists, who invented everything, committed the greatest crimes in Kosovo and Metohija, for which no one has been imprisoned and held accountable to this day”.
NATO launched attacks on the Serbian barracks to prevent violence perpetrated by Serbian military, police, and paramilitary forces against Albanians in Kosovo. This incident was preceded by the killing of 45 Albanians in the village of Racak in Shtime.
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić publicly defended Todosijević, stating that he believes “Racak is a fabrication” and that Serbs in Kosovo do not have freedom of speech.
