Todosijevic sentenced to two years in prison for saying that Racak crime was fabricated

Former (Kosovo) Minister of Administration and Local Self-Government Ivan Todosijevic has been sentenced to two years in prison for saying that the crime in Racak was fabricated.

Todosijevic, a former representative of the Serb community in the Pristina government, was sentenced today based on an indictment charging him with "incitement to national, racial, religious or ethnic hatred, divisions or intolerance," KTV reported.

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Presiding Judge Musa Konjali said the sentence will be enforced after the verdict becomes final.

The trial of Todosijevic, who is a Serb List official, began two days ago in the Basic Court in Pristina.

The indictment against Todosijevic was raised based on his comments made on the 20th anniversary of the start of the NATO aggression. In a ceremony in Zvecan, he said that "the cause of the aggression against our country was the so-called humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo and Metohija, the fictional Racak (case)".

"While in fact, it was precisely these Shiptar (Albanian) terrorists who fabricated it, that committed the greatest atrocities in Kosovo and Metohija for which no one has been held responsible to this day. They committed crimes before the NATO aggression, killing good Serbs in their workplace. They continued their bloody feast during the aggression and then with the arrival of the so-called peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and Metohija," Todosijevic said, which prompted an investigation against him in early April.

Previously, then Kosovo PM Ramush Haradinaj dismissed him as a cabinet member for "hate speech and insulting the Racak victims."

Todosijevic pleaded not guilty during the trial. His lawyer, Nebojsa Vlajic, asked the court to acquit him.

In the recent elections for the Kosovo parliament, Todosijevic was elected as one of the 10 deputies from the Serb List.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)