Lirije Gashi from Qyshk/Cuska, one of four villages targeted by the Serbian fighters in 1999, said she doubted that justice would be done after their convictions were overturned by the Belgrade court this week and a retrial was ordered.
“I don’t believe they will get the deserved sentence. I lost trust when they were sentenced for the first time,” said Gashi, who was a witness at the nine men’s trial.
Rexhe Kelmendi, another witness of the Qyshk/Cuska killings, who lost nine members of his family during the Serb attack, also said he does not trust the court in Belgrade.
“They would get a deserved sentence if they were judged here in Kosovo,” he said.
“We are not satisfied. And now with the retrial, it is going to get heavier for us,” he added.
The Belgrade-based appeals court on Tuesday annulled the 2014 verdict convicting the former members of the Yugoslav Army’s 177th Intervention Squad of killing over 118 Albanian civilians in April and May 1999 during the attacks on four villages in Kosovo.
Isa Gashi, from the village of Pavlan, who lost his brother and a niece in one attack on May 14, 1999, also expressed dissatisfaction with the decision to send the case for retrial.
“It would be different if the trial happened in Kosovo. I do not trust the courts there [Serbia],” he said.
The appeals court in Belgrade ruled on Tuesday that the 2014 verdict was “incomprehensible and contradictory” and said that the facts had not been adequately established to convict the former members of the Yugoslav Army’s 177th Intervention Squad.
Former Yugoslav Army commander Toplica Miladinovic was sentenced to 20 years in prison for ordering the unit’s commander Nebojsa Minic to launch the attacks on the villages of Ljubenic, Pavlan, Zahac and Cuska, all in the area of the Kosovo town of Pec/Peja. Minic, whose nickname was ‘Mrtvi’ (‘Dead’), died of AIDS in Argentina in 2005.
Two other fighters from the unit, Dejan Bulatovic and Milojko Nikolic, were also sentenced to 20 years in jail, while Ranko Momic was given 15 years.
Abdulah Sokic was sentenced to 12 years, Srecko Popovic to 10 years and Sinisa Misic to five years.
Of the other men on trial, Slavisa Kastratovic and Boban Bogicevic were given two years each, while Radoslav Brnovic and Veljko Koricanin were acquitted.
