Serbian List, Belgrade react after Todosijevic sentence

The Serbian List said it views this act as a message to the Government of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti that members of the Serb community “have no place in Kosovo”.

In the case that returned to the retrial, Todosijevic was sentenced to a year in prison for “spreading hatred and intolerance”.

The case against him concerns statements containing hate speech concerning the massacre in Recak.

Todosijevic declared in March 2019 that the reason for the <x0-aggression of NATO” against Yugoslav Army targets in 1999 was the so-called humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo and the fabricated massacre of Recak”.

Meanwhile, the Office for Kosovo in the Serbian Government said Todosijevic has been invited to appear at the centre of detention on April 3rd to begin serving punishment.

This office said it will announce the European Union's special envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, and the ambassadors of the QUINT states regarding Todosijevic's sentence.

In a statement to Radio Free Europe, Todosijevic's lawyer, Nebojsa Vladjic, said they would complain to the Supreme Court of Kosovo, which had turned the case into retrial in early 2021.

Whatever is done literally, verbally, [for that] no one can go to jail. This is no criminal offence”, he said.

In 2021 the prison sentence for Todosijevic was postponed twice after the Supreme turned the case into retrial.

Todosijevic is a member of the headship of the Serbian List, which earlier participated in the work of the Kosovo Assembly and has been part of the Government.

Currently, he is chairman of the Zvecan parallel municipality, which functions according to the Serbian system.

At the time Todosijevic made statements about the Recak massacre, he held the post of Minister of Self-government Management Lokal in the Government of Kosovo. He was later dismissed by then Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

In addition to naming as “triation” the events in Recak, statements made on the 20th anniversary of the start of NATO bombings on then-Yugoslav Yugoslavia, Todosijevic said also that the “Albanian terrorists, who invented all of them, committed the biggest crimes in Kosovo and Metohija, for which no one has been imprisoned and have not served as a responsibility to date<3>

NATO launched attacks on Serb targets to prevent violence exercised by Serbian military, police and paramilitary forces against Albanians in Kosovo. This event preceded the killing of 45 Albanians in the village of Recak of Shtime.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vuciq has publicly defended Todosijevic, saying he believes “Recak is fiction” and that Serbs in Kosovo do not have the right to freedom of speech.