SARAJEVO, January 27 (RAPSI) – The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Monday adopted a final ruling in the case of Serbian general Vlastimir Djordjevic, sentencing him to 18 years in prison for crimes committed in Kosovo.

The chamber has confirmed his “guilt for crimes committed by Serbian forces during a campaign of terror and violence against Kosovo Albanians during the conflict in Kosovo” and “partially granted the appeals of both the Defense and the Prosecution and reduced Djordjevic’s sentence from 27 years to 18 years in prison,” reads the press release on the ICTY website.

It thereby mitigated the sentence passed on the general in February 2011.

In 2011, Djordjevic, Assistant Minister of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) and Chief of its Public Security Department (RJB) at the time the crimes were committed, was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes against Kosovo Albanian civilians in 1999.

The Appeals Chamber has accepted some of the general’s arguments to acquit him of his responsibility for some charges of deportation and murder. However, the judges have not accepted his claim that he did not participate in “a joint criminal enterprise” with “the purpose of changing the ethnic balance of Kosovo to ensure Serbian control over the province.”

The chamber also accepted the prosecutors’ argument that Djordjevic was guilty of sexually assaulting Albanian women in Kosovo.

Russian judge in the Hague Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov did not agree with some of the Appeals Chamber’s judgments.

Djordjevic was indicted in 2003 but remained on the run until his arrest in Montenegro in June 2007. Initially, he claimed to be innocent of the charges filed against him. However, in May 2013 he admitted to the ICTY Appeals Chamber that crimes had been committed in Kosovo and apologized to the victims’ families.