Kosovo Albanian Gets 18-year Jail Term For Attempted Murder Of Serb

ONASA/AFP, Jul 25, 2005 11:54 PM

PRISTINA, July 22 (ONASA/AFP) - An ethnic Albanian man was found guilty Friday of the attempted murder of a Kosovo Serb during March 2004 riots was sentenced to 18 years in prison by a UN court, his lawyer said.

Mehmet Morina, 29, was found guilty of attempted murder of elderly Kosovo Serb Zlatibor Trajkovic by beating him in the street during the three days of inter-ethnic violence in March 2004, lawyer Aqif Tuhina told AFP.

Trajkovic was eventually set aflame by the ethnic-Albanian crowd.

The incident occurred in the Serb enclave of Kosovo Polje, some 10 kilometres southwest of the capital Pristina.

Tuhina said he would lodge an appeal to the supreme court, "as we believe the prosecution did not present sufficient material evidence for this verdict."

The March 2004 riots were the worst ones since the UN and NATO took control of the southern Serbian province in June 1999, at the end of a war between Belgrade armed forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.

Nineteen people were killed and over 900 injured, including international police and NATO peacekeepers (KFOR), as mobs of ethnic Albanians attacked minority enclaves mostly inhabited by Serbs.

More than 4,000 people -- mostly Serbs -- were forced to flee.

More than 70 people have been indicted so far in relation with the March 2004 violence for the killings, burning of Serb houses, churches and monasteries, aggravated inter-ethnic violence and violence against police.

Several people have been convicted so far for involvement in the violence, but Friday's sentence one is the most severe.