Kosovo Retrial Confirms Serbian Police Ex-Inspector’s Ten-Year Sentence

Retrial upholds ten-year sentence for ethnic Gorani ex-police officer who assaulted ethnic Albanian prisoners during the Kosovo war, one of whom died. Sacir Lutvija in court om July 28, 2026. Photo: BIRN. Sacir Lutvija, a 65-year-old ethnic Gorani former member of the Serbian police force, was sentenced to ten years in prison in a retrial at the Pristina Basic Court, for war crimes committed during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo. Serbian police and military forces staged a campaign of arrests of ethnic Albanian civilians and 11 of them were taken to Prizren police station in southern Kosovo, where Lutvija was among the inspectors who questioned them, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said those arrested were beaten during the interrogation and subjected to electric shocks on their hands and genitals. One civilian died and ten others sustained serious injuries. Lutvija, who has both Kosovo and Serbian citizenship, was arrested in October 2023 and has been in detention since then. The time in custody will be counted towards his sentence. The Kosovo Special Prosecution charged Lutvija with unlawfully arresting and beating civilians, inhumane treatment and murder in his capacity as an inspector and police officer in Prizren. Lutvija pleaded not guilty in September last year. Judge Kujtim Krasniqi on Tuesday ordered Lutvija to pay a court fee of 400 euros as well as 100 euros to the crime victims’ fund. The verdict can be appealed. Lutvija was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Pristina Basic Court in November 2025. But the Court of Appeals sent the case to a retrial in June this year having concluded that the Pristina Basic Court had not “concretely clarified the actions attributed to the accused in relation to each of the injured parties”. The Court of Appeal also said the Basic Court failed to explained the accused’s participation in committing the crimes and “did not clarify the evidence upon which the conclusions presented in the verdict were based”. The Gorani are a small Slavic ethnic group who mostly follow Islam and inhabit a highland triangle between Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia.