A Kosovo court on Friday fined Serbian official Igor Popovic €3,000 and ordered his deportation for two years after finding him guilty of inciting ethnic hatred, the Basic Court in Pristina said.
Popovic, an assistant director in Serbia’s government office for Kosovo, reached a plea deal with the Special Prosecutor’s Office over charges that he used inflammatory language in a July 18 speech in Rahovec, western Kosovo. Prosecutors said his remarks targeted the Kosovo Liberation Army and inflamed interethnic tensions.
Presiding Judge Kujtim Krasniqi said Popovic was convicted of “incitement of division and intolerance” under Article 141 of Kosovo’s penal code and initially sentenced to six months in prison. The term was replaced by the fine under the plea agreement, with time spent in pre-trial detention deducted.
The court also imposed the additional penalty of deportation and a two-year entry ban, in line with a joint request from prosecutors and the defence.
Popovic’s lawyer, Millosh Dellivic, said they stood by the plea deal. Popovic was arrested shortly after his July speech, which prosecutors said undermined coexistence and trust among Kosovo’s ethnic communities.