

The Appeals Court in Belgrade. Photo: www.bg.ap.sud.rs

Belgrade Appeals Court has confirmed the verdict acquitting former Yugoslav Army brigade commander Pavle Gavrilovic of responsibility for the murders of Kosovo Albanian civilians in the village of Trnje/Terrne on March 25, 1999.

The court however upheld the conviction of his subordinate officer, Rajko Kozlina, sentencing him to 15 years in prison.

“The first-instance court correctly concluded that there was insufficient evidence in the current case that Pavle Gavrilovic issued an order ‘that there should be no survivors’, which meant killing civilians – residents of the village of Trnje,” said the explanation of the verdict issued on December 12 but published on the Appeals Court website on Monday.

It further explained that testimony from one witness who said that he heard Gavrilovic issuing the order was insufficiently accurate and logical and was not supported by other relevant evidence during the proceedings.

This “also called into question [the witness’s] credibility, and thus cast doubt on the public prosecutor’s claim from the indictment”, it added.

At the time of the attack on the village in Kosovo, Gavrilovic was commander of the rear battalion of the 549th Motorised Brigade of the Yugoslav Army’s Pristina Corps, and Kozlina was a technical company guide in the brigade.

In the first-instance verdict in April this year, Kozlina was convicted of leading his unit into Trnje/Terrne, shooting two civilians, who both survived, and ordering his soldiers to fire on other civilians in the village, causing the deaths of 15 people.

Among the victims were elderly people and a four-year-old boy.

The indictment had alleged that Gavrilovic ordered the attack.

He was alleged to have split his men up into three groups, with co-defendant Kozlina in one of them, and ordered them to enter the village and ethnically cleanse the area.

Judge Mirjana Ilic said while handing down the first-instance verdict in April that it had not been proven that Gavrilovic issued an order that “there should be no survivors”.

“The court finds that [the charges against Gavrilovic] are not backed by evidence,” Ilic said while reading out the verdict.

The trial chamber ruled that the order to leave no survivors “could not have been issued” and acquitted Gavrilovic.