The owner of Kosovo’s Medicus clinic and his head anaesthetist were convicted of human trafficking and organised crime after a court found they carried out illegal transplant operations to sell kidneys to patients.

Pristina Basic Court on Thursday found Medicus owner Lutfi Dervishi and the clinic’s head anaesthetist Sokol Hajdini guilty of human trafficking and organised crime.

Dervishi was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison and fined 8,000 euros, while Hajdini was jailed for a year.

In closing statements at the high-profile trial in Kosovo, the defence insisted that the kidney transplants at the Medicus clinic had no connection to people-trafficking as the indictment claims.

In its closing statements on Tuesday, the defence told Pristina Basic Court that the prosecution could not prove that the Medicus clinic owner, Lutfi Dervishi, was involved in organised crime in connection with people-trafficking.

Serbia and Kosovo have become refuges for each other’s criminals and fugitives, allowing suspected murderers, drug dealers and organ-traffickers to evade justice by crossing the border.

When the time came for Kosovo doctor Lutfi Dervishi and his son Arban to be imprisoned in 2016 for one of the Balkans’ most gruesome post-war crimes, the pair had vanished.

From pledges that it is his job not to give away Kosovo to more recent statements that Kosovo's independence is a done deal, Serbia's President has changed his stance on the former province markedly since 2012.

After vowing that the task of his Serbian Progressive Party was not to "hand over" Kosovo if it came to power, until more recent statements that Serbia's own wrong policies had "sealed" Kosovo independence, Aleksandar Vucic’s rhetoric on Kosovo has zig-zagged markedly over the years.

Kosovo's Ministry of Justice and Islamic Community have signed an agreement on engaging imams to help radicalised Muslims who have been arrested or jailed for terrorism.

Kosovo Justice Minister Abelard Tahiri on Friday signed a deal with the body representing the country's Muslim clerics, the BIK, on deradicalising prisoners charged or convicted of terrorism.

"We already have a proposal from the Islamic Community and we expect they will help in deradicalisation of those who have returned from the wars in Syria and Iraq," Tahiri said.

Serbia's draft strategy on security names separatism, religious and political extremism and more recognitions of Kosovo as some of the key threats to national security.

Serbia's latest National Security Strategy lists separatism, extremism, recognition of Kosovo's independence and attempts to revise Bosnia's 1995 Dayton Agreement as some of the main security threats to the country.

The strategy, published on the website of the Defence Ministry, says the status of Kosovo, inter-ethnic tensions and the migrant crisis are having the most impact on the country and the region.

Vetevendosje defector and Pristina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti has been elected the new leader of the Social Democratic Party – a party formed back in the 1990s, which has enjoyed little success since then.

The Mayor of Pristina, Shpend Ahmeti, on Wednesday became the new leader of the Social Democratic Party, PSD, which he and a number of other MPs joined after leaving the main opposition Vetevendosje party.

As the EU Rule-of-Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX, enters the final month of its mandate, the Pristina authorities said they will allow another mission, but with a scaled-down monitoring and advisory role.

As EULEX’s ten-year mandate comes to an end in mid-June, Kosovo’s Ministry of Justice told BIRN that instead of shutting down completely, the Pristina authorities want the EU rule-of-law mission to change its mandate and designation and stay on.

Worsening relations between Serbia and Kosovo are affecting more and more sporting events, preventing matches that took place without problems in the past.

The right to use one’s mother tongue - Albanian or Serbian - is essential for everyone in Kosovo, but progress is being prevented by political disputes, the government’s Language Commissioner told BIRN.

“Language rights reflect on all other rights, like fair legal processes, obtaining documents, work rights, healthcare, education, and many more,” Slavisa Mladenovic, the Kosovo government’s Language Commissioner, told BIRN in an interview.