At the Basic Court in Pristina, Sergjan Lazoviq was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison for war crimes committed during the 1998–1999 period in the village of Panorc, Municipality of Malisheva, KosovaPress reports.
At the verdict announcement hearing, the presiding judge, Vesel Ismaili, found Lazoviq guilty and read out the indictment against him.
“He is guilty because during the period 1998–1999, during the war in Kosovo, in the village of Pranorc, Malisheva, acting in co-perpetration with other persons during a non-international armed conflict between members of the KLA and Serbian police forces, he violated the rules of international law, Rule 3, and carried out unlawful arrests and deprivation of liberty, physical abuse, expulsions, and destruction of the immovable property of the civilian Albanian population. From September 3 to September 5, 1998, in the village of Pranorc, armed and in uniform, acting together with other persons with the aim of intimidation, expulsion, and ethnic cleansing of the Albanian population, he arrested, tortured, and mistreated around 500 civilian citizens who were not involved in the conflict,” Judge Ismaili stated.
He further said that the defendant committed the criminal offense against the civilian population and was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months of imprisonment.
“With this, the defendant has committed the criminal offense against the civilian population, and based on the relevant legal provisions, the court sentences the defendant to imprisonment for a duration of 12 years and 6 months,” he said.
According to the indictment, Sergjan Lazoviq is accused that during the 1998–1999 period, during the war in Kosovo, in the village of Panorc in the Municipality of Malisheva, acting in co-perpetration with other still unidentified persons, he violated the rules of international law and carried out unlawful arrests and deprivation of liberty, as well as physical and psychological abuse.
Lazoviq is accused of arresting, torturing, and physically and psychologically mistreating around 500 civilian citizens who were not involved in the conflict.
Through these actions, Sergjan Lazoviq is charged, in co-perpetration, with committing the criminal offense of “War crimes against the civilian population,” sanctioned under Article 142 in conjunction with Article 22 of the Criminal Law of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (hereinafter “CL-SFRY”), which was in force at the time the criminal offense was committed.
