Relatives of killed and missing persons from Kosovo villages Krusha e Madhe and Krusha e Vogel and other villages protested on Thursday at the Justice Palace in Prishtina, after the court halved the prison sentence against Serbian former police officer, Darko Tasic.
Tasic was sentenced to 22 years in prison over the massacre of Albanian civilians in Krusha e Vogel in March 1999.
But on Tuesday, the Court of Appeals decided to cut the sentence to 11 years “in which the time spent in detention of remand was also calculated”.
Protesters said that such a decision from the Court of Appeals is unacceptable and an insulting act by the justice system.
Shpresa Shehu, representative of Krusha e Vogel told media that in addition to the suffering of the residents, they now have another concern to deal with.
“By halving the sentence of the criminal Darko Tasic, the greatest injustice has been done. We are indignant, we are concerned and upset. The [initial] sentence against him was insufficient considering the crimes he committed in our village and other surrounding villages,” Shehu said.
Some of the protest organizers went in a meeting with representatives of the Court of Appeals to get explanations for the reduction of the sentence, Radio Free Europe reported.
109 Albanian men, aged 13- 72 were machine-gunned by Serbian forces in Krusha e Vogel during the war in Kosovo. Twenty of them managed to escape.
Tasic was accused of burning dead bodies and disposing of them in a nearby river. He is also accused of robbing and burning the properties.
During the trial against Tasic, witnesses testified that they have seen Tasic and his father carrying the corpses by an orange truck, setting it on fire and pushing it into the Drini River.
