POLITICAL VERDICTS AGAINST SERBS WITHOUT CREDIBLE EVIDENCE

BELGRADE, JULY 31 /SRNA/ - Office for Kosovo and Metohija in the Government of the Republic of Serbia stated that the political courts of self-proclaimed Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti continue to issue draconian, unlawful, and politically motivated verdicts against Serbs-verdicts based not on evidence, credible witnesses, law or justice, but purely on ethnic grounds, with the aim of retaliating against the Serbian people.

The Office recalled the most recent such groundless verdict, the 15-year prison sentence handed down today to Miloš Plesković from Prizren, although no credible witness connected him to the alleged crime the killing of three Albanian civilians in Prizren. The statement added that such political and unlawful verdicts violate the basic human rights of Serbs, including the right to a fair trial, which is guaranteed by international conventions. For this reason, the Office once again called on international missions to, in accordance with their mandates, ensure respect for the basic rights of Serbs and prevent all forms of physical and institutional persecution. The Office noted that at the time of the alleged incident, Plesković was only 19 years old and continued to travel freely to Prizren even after the events in question, yet so-called witnesses only "recognized" him as the alleged perpetrator 24 years later. It also recalled that his family, like thousands of other Serbs, was forcibly expelled from their homes in Prizren in 1999, when the city was completely ethnically cleansed of its Serbian population. "Today's verdict sends a message to all of them that they must not return to their homes, and not even think about doing so, because they will be arrested and convicted of the gravest crimes without any concrete evidence," the Office stated.