Alidemaj: Appeals Court Annuls Izbica Verdict Again
The court found the trial panel assessed the statements of only three witnesses and left other evidence unevaluated. Alidemaj stays in custody until a new trial.
Muhamet Alidemaj of Krnjina near Istok, who is on trial over the killing of Albanian civilians in Izbica in 1999, remains in custody, and his case starts over from the beginning. On Wednesday, November 4, the Pristina Court of Appeals overturned his conviction for the second time and sent the case back to the Basic Court in Pristina for retrial.
What exactly was annulled?
The court set aside the verdict of February 2, 2026, in which the Basic Court in Pristina found Alidemaj guilty of a war crime against the civilian population and sentenced him to 13 years in prison. The sentence credited time served in custody since March 30, 2021. The Court of Appeals had also overturned the first verdict, from July 2024, which carried 15 years, so the February trial was a retrial.
A special panel of the Court of Appeals upheld the appeal filed by Alidemaj and his lawyer. According to its statement, the verdict contains essential violations of criminal procedure and flaws in the assessment of evidence. The trial panel assessed the statements of only three witnesses and did not consider the remaining evidence from the main hearing, either individually or in relation to each other. It also failed to explain the defendant’s specific actions and his contribution as a co-perpetrator, and it did not separately examine the defense’s arguments or the question of the defendant’s identification. The Court of Appeals had pointed to the same problems in its first decision returning the case.
The court also gave the trial panel concrete instructions:
“The Court of Appeals has given concrete instructions to the court of first instance, so that in the retrial it must remedy all violations identified in this judgment and examine the disputed issues raised in the previous judgment of the Court of Appeals as well. Furthermore, it must assess all the evidence presented, one by one and in connection with other evidence, including the statements of defense witnesses, identification records and other material evidence, and give clear reasons for the facts it considers proven or unproven.”
The Court of Appeals also stated where the defendant stands until the new first-instance ruling: “Even after the new decision, the defendant remains in custody until the next decision of the court of first instance.”
What do the defense and the indictment say?
Alidemaj is defended by lawyers Milos Delevic and Dejan Vasic. Delevic welcomed the decision and said:
“As the defense counsel of Muhamet Alidemaj, whom I am defending in this case together with my colleague, attorney Dejan Vasic, I want to stress in particular that this is the second time the Court of Appeals has accepted the defense appeal and annulled a conviction because of serious violations of criminal procedure and flaws in the assessment of evidence.”
Delevic recalled that the defense has maintained from the start that Alidemaj is innocent, that he has spent more than five and a half years in prison, and that his wife in Jakovo is raising their three children alone. “No court decision can give them back the years they have lost,” he said. Of the court of first instance he expects the following: “I expect the court in the retrial to finally act in line with the law and the instructions of the Court of Appeals, and the defense firmly maintains that the guilt of Muhamet Alidemaj has not been proven and that the only lawful and fair outcome of this proceeding can be an acquittal.”
The indictment charges Alidemaj with taking part, together with members of the Serbian army and police, in the killing of Albanian civilians in Izbica in 1999. Sources say 130 people were killed, but they differ on where the village is: RTS writes about Izbica near Pec, while Telegraf places it near Klina. Alidemaj lived in Belgrade for more than twenty years and was arrested in 2021, when he came to Kosovo and Metohija. RTS gives March 31, 2021 as the day of the arrest.
His guilt has not been established with final effect, so the presumption of innocence still applies. According to RTS, several dozen Serbs and other non-Albanians are currently held in prisons in Kosovo and Metohija, either as convicted war criminals or as people on trial or awaiting proceedings. How long Alidemaj’s third trial will take cannot be seen from the published decisions.
