Citizen of Montenegro Ekrem Bajrović in Kosovo was sentenced to 12 years in prison for war crimes - the murder of 15 Albanian civilians in the village of Starodvorane. On June 30, the Kosovo Court of Appeals upheld the verdict of the Basic Court in Pristina from July last year, according to the decision, which Vijesti has access to.
Bajrović's family, as well as his lawyers, told "Vijesti" that they learned about the verdict from the local media, and a few days after it was passed, it was delivered to them in Albanian. A translation was also delivered shortly after. Bajrović's hearing before the Kosovo Court of Appeals was held at the end of May this year, they stated.
Bajrović was found guilty by a court in Pristina and sentenced to 12 years in prison for war crimes against the civilian population in Istok and surrounding villages in 1998 and 1999, which his lawyers appealed, and are now announcing an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeal, as stated in the judgment, after analyzing the decision appealed against, together with the case files, assessed the appeal allegations and concluded that the judgment does not contain any significant violations of the provisions of criminal procedure under Article 384 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which are also taken into account ex officio, given that the operative part of the judgment is clear and understandable, while the reasoning provides complete and clear reasons for the decisive facts.
"Therefore, the judgment appealed against does not contain any other violations that would necessitate its mandatory annulment, nor has the criminal law been violated to the detriment of the accused, as claimed by the defense in the appeal," it is quoted in several Kosovo Albanian-language media outlets.
They rejected all points of appeal filed against the verdict of the Basic Court in Pristina.
The indictment of the Kosovo Prosecutor's Office states that Bajrović contributed to criminal acts, such as murder, robbery, beating, abuse, arrest, torture and inhumane treatment of the civilian population. According to the Prosecutor's Office, he was part of the Serbian police and military forces that killed 8 Albanian civilians in the village of Starodvorane on May 1999, 15.
Bajrović's lawyers Miloš Delević i Ljubomir Pantović In their appeal to the Court of Appeal, they stated that their client's rights were violated. They claim that the reasons given in the reasoning for the decision are not clear, which makes the decision incomprehensible and inadmissible.
"Therefore, there are all circumstances that clearly indicate that with such a decision the court exceeded the charge, and at the same time violated the objective identity of the charge and the decision, which together represent an absolutely fundamental violation of the provisions of criminal procedure within the meaning of Article 384, paragraph 2, item 2.6. of the Code of Criminal Procedure, since the indictment and the decision are in obvious contradiction with the objective identity and the decision due to the fact that the provision of the indictment states, by name and surname, that on January 8, 1999, 15 people were killed in the village of Stvorane, while the first instance decision, which is challenged by this Appeal, states that 16 people were killed at that time, also by name and surname," it is written in the appeal in question, which was considered by the Court of Appeal in Kosovo.
Therefore, they argued, the first instance decision was also flawed on this basis because the court clearly exceeded the charge and violated the objective identity of the charge and the decision, since Bajrović was charged by the prosecution on suspicion of participating in the murder of 15 people, while the first instance court found him guilty and sentenced him for participating in the murder of 16 people.
"Therefore, this is an untenable legal situation and solely because of this anomaly, the first instance decision cannot survive," they concluded.
They also stated that no witness heard at the main trial stated that Bajrović killed or expelled anyone from his house or village on May 7 and 8, 1999, except for witness Azem Tuzi, who claimed that the defendant hit him in the ribs once with a rifle butt.
They further emphasize that of the 35 witnesses questioned during the investigation, 33 were questioned after Bajrović's arrest, and that some witnesses who were questioned before the arrest did not mention him at all, that he did not exist for them, while 26 witnesses who were questioned after the defendants' arrest stated, both during the investigation and in cross-examination, that they voluntarily appeared to testify because they learned through the media that Bajrović had been arrested.
They claim that the court ignored testimonies that unequivocally prove that Bajrović did not participate in the crimes he was charged with, but rather in rescuing civilians.
Bajrović has been detained in a Kosovo prison since October 2022. Since then, his family has sought support and assistance from Montenegrin institutions because, as they claimed, this could contribute to his release before a final verdict is reached.
As "Vijesti" has learned, Bajrović's children spoke with several Montenegrin officials and MPs, including Filip Ivanovic, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Montenegro for Foreign and European Affairs.
He was visited in prison after the Court of Appeals' decision and Bernard Čobaj, the Ambassador of Montenegro to Kosovo, was told to "Vijesti" by a member of Bajrović's family, who spoke with the prison warden about the medications and therapy that Bajrović needs because he is allegedly in a serious health condition.
The result of the conversation was a letter of guarantee issued by the Minister of Justice of Montenegro. Bojan Božović sent to the Minister of Justice of Kosovo Aljbuljeni Hajiju and requested his temporary release until the completion of the criminal proceedings against him for war crimes.
In that letter, as “Vijesti” published in September last year, Božović wrote that they knew that this kind of activity was not common, but that given Bajrović’s health condition, as well as the complexity of the procedure itself, they believed that this example would represent good practice for similar future procedures. Despite this, Bajrović was not transferred to Montenegro.
The defense dismissed the charges, and the court of appeals
Bajrović, a former Serbian police officer, said in his final address to the court that he "feels great shame that he has to defend himself against these accusations at all, because he has tried his whole life to live honorably and honestly, and that a great stain has been cast on his name and that of his family."
"My entire working life as a police officer was filled with problems. I was in constant conflict with my superiors, because I tried to help and make things easier for people, wherever I could. After all, these are my neighbors, who knew me, my father and my family," said Bajrović, alluding to the Albanian population.
He said that he wanted to help them even on the day when those "accidental murders" took place, and that the Prosecution's witnesses also talked about it.
He said that that day he saved Ahmet Eljšani and several members of the Kabashi family, whom he recognized because they had been working on his roof before the war.
"When I waved for them to pass, 100 people passed with them," said Bajrović.
He stated that it was true that innocent civilians were killed that day, but that he did not participate in it, nor did he see the killings. He said that during his short stay in Starodvoran he noticed paramilitary formations, people he had never seen before, armed and masked. According to Bajrović, his commander noticed that he was helping the Albanians and returned him to the checkpoint in Đurakovac, so that he would not come into conflict with the paramilitary.
"Because of all the above, and above all because of my clear conscience, I stayed in Vitomirica long after the withdrawal of the Serbian forces. Even though I was a policeman, I didn't want to leave my house, because I could look everyone in the eye, but at the insistence and request of my mother and my family, I went to Rožaje in July 1999, and then to Bar", he said. is he.
"The crime happened, but he didn't participate"
In the closing argument of Bajrović's defense, among other things, it is written that they do not dispute that the crime occurred, but that he did not participate in it, which "all evidence and witnesses show."
They also challenged the indictment, emphasizing that the Prosecution had, without any basis, expanded it to cover the entire period of the war in Kosovo - from 1998 to 1999, even though Bajrović is being tried for crimes committed over two days.
They complained because the prosecution granted the status of injured party to all 35 witnesses, even though some of them, as they claim, were not in Starodvoran on May 7 and 8 of that year, and to witnesses who did not even speak about the crimes in that village and who did not even mention Bajrović, as well as to those who themselves said that they were not injured party.
"Of the 35 witnesses heard in the investigation, 33 were heard after Bajrović's arrest. Only two witnesses, Bajram Dautaj and Ismet Kikaj, were heard before the arrest and in their statements they did not mention Bajrović a single word. Of the 33 witnesses heard after Ekrem's arrest, the majority said that they came to the police on their own initiative, because they heard through the media that he had been arrested. None of them gave an acceptable explanation for why they did not report him earlier, if they already knew that he had committed a crime," the closing statement reads.
Bonus video:
