The Basic Court in Pristina sentenced Muhamet Alidemaj to 15 years in prison on Friday, after finding him guilty of participating in the Izbica massacre, where Serbian forces killed over 130 people in the 1998-99 war.

“The accused M.A., intentionally and in complicity with members of the Serbian police and military forces, seriously violated the rules of international law during the war against the civilian population and their property,” the court said in a statement on Friday.

In the massacre of Izbica – a village in Skenderaj northwest of Pristina, Serbian forces killed over 130 Albanians in March 1999.

Alidemaj was arrested in March 2021 and has been in custody since then. The time spent in detention will be counted towards serving the prison sentence.

Alidemaj, together with the Serbian military and police forces, separated the women and children under the age of 12 from the crowd and forced them at gunpoint to go towards Albania, while the remaining men were executed with automatic weapons, killing 130 people in Izbica in March 1999, the court said.

He was also found guilty of participating in inhumane treatment, violation of bodily integrity and health, displacement, robbery and destruction of civilian property.

Alidemaj – who is a citizen of Serbia of Albanian nationality – has denied the accusations.

He has the right to appeal against the prison sentence, writes Radio Free Europe (REL).

During the last war in Kosovo in 1998-99, more than 13,000 civilians were killed and thousands more disappeared.

Over 1,600 people are still missing – most of them Albanians.