The Supreme Court of Kosovo doubled the sentence for Predrag Đorđević, a member of the Car Lazar Guard

A mixed panel of the Supreme Court of Kosovo presided over by Justice Norbert Koster , rendered a decision on May 4, 2010 pronouncing the accused Predrag Đorđević guilty and sentenced him to twelve (12) years and three (3) months in prison for the commission of the criminal acts of instigating national, racial, religious, or ethnic hatred, strife, or intolerance and attempted aggravated murder.

In delivering this decision, the Supreme Court of Kosovo doubled the prison sentence for the accused Đorđević previously pronounced by the District Court in Mitrovica/Mitrovicë in November 2009.

The Humanitarian Law Center Kosovo believes that the Supreme Court of Kosovo properly sentenced the accused Đorđević. The sentence pronounced by the first-instance court was doubled because of the implied danger and the gravity of the criminal acts the accused is charged with, because of the particularly detrimental impact of the crime on already poor inter-ethnic relations in the divided and very tense environment of Mitrovica/Mitrovicë. This sentence may positively influence potential perpetrators.

The indictment raised on June 30, 2009 charged Đorđević, a member of the ‘Car Lazar Brigade’ of posting a flag with a cross and four “C” fire steels on the Isa Bej mosque in southern Mitrovica/Mitrovicë on June 14, 2008. After that, in front of the police station in the same part of Mitrovica/Mitrovicë the accused shot at police officers Enver Pllana and Arijeta Xhosha while they were trying to help him, because they thought he was deaf-mute, in doing so committing the criminal act of instigating national, racial, religious, or ethnic hatred, strife, or intolerance under Article 115, paragraph 3 of the CCK and attempted aggravated murder under Article 146 and Article 147 in conjunction with Article 20 of the CCK. The police officers fired their guns and wounded Đorđević ending his attack. The indictment included the criminal act of terrorism that the internationally appointed judge Isabelle Arnal rejected in her closing argument.

The first-instance trial began on July 27, 2009 and during 15 trial days one court-appointed expert and 27 witnesses were heard. Two of those witnesses were victim/witnesses. A psychiatric-psychological assessment of the accused was conducted in the course of the chief prosecutor’s case, and DNA tests were undertaken on material recovered at the crime scene. The District Court of Mitrovica/Mitrovicë’s ruling of November 19, 2009 found the accused guilty and sentenced him to a unified prison sentence of six (6) years and three (3) months.