Today, a mixed panel of two EULEX judges and one local judge at Pristina District Court found Fatmir Ljimaj, Naser Krasniqi, Nexhmi Krasniqi and Naser Shala not guilty of all charges.

They had been charged with committing war crimes against the civilian population and prisoners of war in the so-called Klecka case.

Earlier, six other defendants were also cleared of all charges.

A EULEX prosecutor from Kosovo’s Special Prosecution Office has announced that he is appealing the rulings

Bogdanovic: Ljimaj's acquittal scandalous

Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Goran Bogdanovic said on Wednesday that it is scandalous and humiliating for victims that the District Court in Kosovo had found Fatmir Ljimaj and his three co-defendants not guilty on all counts of the indictment for the war crimes committed in the village of Klecka.

“The verdict delivered by a panel of three judges, two foreign and one local, shows that the justice system in Pristina does not operate in line with the law but rather ethnic principle. This unjust ruling is an evident proof that the crimes committed against the Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija are not punished, but their perpetrators are promoted to national heroes,“ Bogdanovic said in a written statement delivered to the media.

Unfortunately, in the last 12 years not a single person suspected of crimes against Serbs has been found or convicted, which implies that every crime against Serbs is allowed, since perpetrators will not be punished.

I want to ask EULEX, but also all relevant international stakeholders in the province when they will find the murderers of 14 reapers in Staro Gracko and children in Gorazdevac, an attacker on the bus in Livadice, killers of the Stolic family from Obilic, and shed light on a number of other crimes against Kosovo Serbs, Bogdanovic noted.

All excuses that it is impossible to obtain evidence, that there are no witnesses, that potential witnesses are being deterred and killed are just an attempt at justifying one's negligence, incompetence, but above all, the ethnic principle and selective implementation of the rule of law in the province, Bogdanovic underlined.