Shaban Berisha (47) received three-month suspended sentence and EUR 200 fine over demolishing the memorial plaque dedicated to the missing journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Penezic, while ethnic motives were excluded from the verdict, Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) said in a statement.

The verdict made by the Basic Court in Djakovica is not given to us yet, so it remains unclear if the prosecution gave up on the qualification of a criminal act as ethnically motivated, although the suspected person admitted it was a reason to demolish the plaque, UNS added.

The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) would today for the seventh time place a memorial plaque next to the Orahovac-Velika Hoca road, dedicated to the missing Radio Pristina journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, Radio kontakt plus reported.

UNS press statement reads they placed six times a plaque with the inscription – Our colleagues, journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, were kidnapped here on 21 August 1999. We are searching for them - and today they would do it again, as the previous memorial plaque has been removed.