Kosovo Serb ex-minister convicted for denying Recak Massacre

Gazeta Express

05/12/2019 13:49

Former minister of Public Administration in Kosovo Government, Ivan Todosijevic, has been convicted to two years’ imprisonment, found guilty of ethnic hatred after referred to Albanians as terrorists and fabricators of massacres during the war in Kosovo.

The Basic Court in Pristina found Todosijevic guilty of inciting national, racial, religious or ethnic hatred. The presiding judge, Musa Konxheli, said the prison sentence will be executed after the judgment becomes final. This is the first instace rulind and the defendat has the right to appeal the Court’s decision.

Ivan Todosijevic was minister of Public Administration and Local Government in Kosovo Government, representing the Srpska List, a political entity representing Serbs in Kosovo which was in co-governance with the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), Nisma and Alliance New Kosova (AKR). Kosovo prime minister dismissed Todosijevic in April 2019, after his statements that one of the worst massacres against civilians committed by Serbian forces during the war in 1999 in the village of Recak, was “fabricated.” According to the indictment filed on 28 June 2019, the defendant in his capacity as minister of Public Administration and Local Government, misusing his official duty or authority, has incited hatred with his speech.

Todosijevic attending a rally organised by local Serbs on 24 March 2019, against NATO’s intervention said that Albanians fabricated crimes against themselves in Kosovo while committing crimes against Serbs. “The reason for the aggression in our country was the so-called humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo and the fabricated Recak [massacre in 1999], and the Albanian terrorists are the ones who made all this up and committed the biggest crimes in Kosovo,” he claimed. Part of the justification for the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia, which started in March 1999, was the killing of 45 Kosovo Albanians by Serbian security forces in the village of Recak in January that year. /Gazetaxpress/