The Basic Court in Pristina has acquitted Zlatan Arsić of war crimes charges, which included the period during 1999 in Kamenica.

With the verdict announced on Monday, February 5, he has also been released from pretrial detention.

Arsić was accused of participating with members of the Serbian police and paramilitary groups in the forcible deportation and displacement of residents of Kamenica and its surroundings.

He was also accused of intentionally damaging the properties of Albanians.

According to the indictment, he had stopped, with a Serbian police vehicle, a person identified as B.M and his family members and then mistreated them.

The indictment by the Special Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo states that this occurred in March 1999, after the NATO bombings.

“Where are you sending these cigarettes, you’re sending them to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA),” Arsić is quoted as telling B.M at the police station in Kamenica, according to the indictment.

Person B.M was beaten by Arsić, in collusion with other individuals, the indictment states.

Furthermore, the indictment states that after this, B.M was returned to the burned house from where he had been expelled.

“In the yard, the accused had threatened him with murder, and then the Serbian police released him and his family,” the indictment states.