FHAD Belgrade for the <x0-Caals sentence”: Very little, too late, dealt with the murder of 59 Albanian civilians.

Former Yugoslav Army member Toplica Miladinovic was sentenced before the special Supreme Court department in Belgrade to 20 years in prison for war crimes against the civilian population in 1999 in Kosovo's Pec district.

He was convicted of having ordered the expulsion of Albanian civilians as commander of the 177 Brigade and of having known about murder and robbery, Clankosova reported.tv.

The indictment details in detail the invasion of villages, killings, robberies, house burning, and deportation of civilians to Albania.

In addition to Miladinovic, Predrag Vukovic was sentenced to 13 years, Abdulah Sofiq to 12, Sinisa Missic to five, while Lazar Pavlovic, Slavisa Kastrativic and Boban Bogic was sentenced to two years.

Velko Coricanin and Milan Ivanovic were acquitted.

Belgrade court sentences 7 Serbs for war crimes in Kosovo to 56 years

Meanwhile, FDH Belgrade has said <x0th) the trial has left out allegations of the indictment for the prosecution's participation in the murder of 42 civilians, Kosovo Albanians, in the village of Lubeniq, as well as 17 civilians in the village of Zahaq, and none of the defendants was convicted of these crimes”.

Consequently, FDH Belgrade says the “number of victims involved in the act has been drastically reduced compared to the” indictment.

The Humanitarian Law Fund believes that most defendants were given unreasonable low sentences, some below the legal minimum for criminal war crimes against the civilian population, especially if the number of civilian victims is considered in these crimes, as well as the way they were killed”.

This organisation says the act of first degree pronounced after a fourteen-year trial, during which three defendants died, two were declared unable, while defendant Ranko Mo enemies is still on the run, “did not bring justice to the victims of crime, and no adequate punishment for authors”.

FDH Belgrade says that during the “procedure, the role of MPB members remains unclear in organising, executing and hiding crime, although witnesses were also spoken of, but also by individual defendants”.

Despite these evidence, the prosecution has not investigated claims of their participation in these crimes. Other Yugoslav Army members, who were in higher hierarchical positions than accused, were also not prosecuted. In 2014, the Prosecution launched an investigation against Dragan Zivanovic, commander of the UK's 125 Motorised Brigade, whose area of responsibility included the villages Lubenic, Sik, Pavlan and Zahaq, and who was superior to Toplica Miladinovicic. However, this investigation was suspended in 2017”, he said. FIG Belgrade.

The Qolku case, this organisation says, is the last case at the Supreme Court in Belgrade for crimes against Albanian civilians in Kosovo, and the latest indictment for those crimes was filed in 2013.

“Since the beginning of 2013, the Humanitarian Law Fund has set up 9 criminal charges for crimes committed in Pec, Krusha, Savina Voda, Vucher, Goden, Crelan, Landovica, Poklek and Gjakova. However, until today no indictment has been filed for any of the crimes mentioned above”, the Belgrade-based Fund for Humanitarian Law has announced.

The verdict

FDH says the court found accused Topliq Miladinovic guilty of issuing orders to the late Nebojsa Miniq, commander of the 177 Intervention Platoon V TO Peja, “to carry out an attack on the civilian population of Albanian nationality and to organise the deportation of this population, although he knew that entity members would destroy and plunder civilian property and kill civilians, which they did”.

Miladinovic, says FDH, had direct knowledge of the crimes and as a commander was obliged to “plan, organize and order, but also to coordinate and control the execution of his orders and bring members of his field unit”.

FDH says that the members of the 177th VTO of Peja (Vukovic, Sokric, Missic, Kastatovic, Pavlovic and Bogicevic), under the command of Nebojsa Miniqi, were sentenced for armed attacks, robbery and expulsion of the civilian population in the villages of Lubenic, Solic, Pavlan and Zahaq, as well as the total murder of 57 civilians of Albanian nationality.

“Dejan Bulatovic, member of Peja VTO 177, who was declared legally incompetent in 2016, and other unknown authors were accused of shooting 42 and injured 11 civilians in the village of Lubeniq”.

“Velko Coricanin, who was accused by the prosecution of helping a member of Pec's VTO 177 in the killing of 17 civilians in the village of Zahaq, was acquitted. Milan Ivanovic, who was accused of participating in the killing of at least 42 people and the wounding of 11 Albanian civilians in the village of Lubenic, was acquitted”. /Klankosova. tv