The Basic Court in Pristina has sentenced Serbian citizen Sllagjan Trajkoviç to ten years in prison for war crimes committed in the municipality of Vushtrri.

Trajkoviç was convicted on one count of the indictment, while the trial panel ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove his responsibility for three other charges, according to Betimi për Drejtësi, as reported by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Under the ruling, the time Trajkoviç spent in pretrial detention will be deducted from his sentence.

The indictment was filed on July 12, 2023, by the Special Prosecution of Kosovo, following his arrest on December 15, 2022. After his arrest, Serbian officials stated that Trajkoviç was a former member of the Kosovo Police.

According to the prosecution, the crimes were committed during the 1998–1999 war in Kosovo, in the village of Reznik in Vushtrri and surrounding areas.

The indictment alleges that Trajkoviç was a member of Serbian police and military forces and that he contributed to killings, raids, beatings, abuse, arrests, torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, detention under conditions of slavery, the forced displacement of thousands of Albanian civilians, as well as looting, arson, and the destruction of homes belonging to the Albanian civilian population.

In recent years, Kosovo has increased the number of indictments filed in absentia for war crimes committed during the conflict, alongside the issuance of verdicts.

In August this year, the Special Prosecution submitted an indictment in absentia against 21 suspects accused of forcibly expelling more than 800,000 Albanian civilians from Kosovo during the war.

During the 1998–1999 Kosovo war, more than 13,000 civilians were killed and thousands went missing. Approximately 1,600 people remain unaccounted for, the majority of them Albanians.

Since the end of the war, dozens of individuals have been convicted of war crimes before domestic and international courts.