Six-year prison sentence confirmed for Jelena Gjukanović for spying in favor of Serbia’s BIA

The Court of Appeals upheld the first-instance decision sentencing Jelena Gjukanović to six years in prison for espionage.

The sentencing decision was initially announced by the Basic Court in Pristina on 27 April 2026.

Gjukanović’s defense lawyer, Predrag Milković, had filed an appeal against the judgment, alleging fundamental violations of criminal procedure rules, an incorrect and incomplete determination of the factual circumstances, and the incorrect application of substantive law.

The defense had requested that the defendant be acquitted or that the case be returned for retrial.

On the other hand, the Kosovo Republic Special Prosecutor’s Office (PSRK) had also filed an appeal concerning the sentence, seeking a harsher sentence of imprisonment for Gjukanović.

The Appeals Prosecutor’s Office had recommended in writing that the Basic Court’s judgment be amended to impose a harsher sentence on the defendant, while the defense’s appeal be dismissed as unfounded.

During the Appeals Panel hearing held on 25 September 2026, the defense had also declared that it fully maintained its written appeal.

In its judgment of 30 September 2026, the Court of Appeals found that the challenged decision did not contain essential violations of criminal procedure, as claimed by the defense.

According to the Appeals Court’s assessment, the operative part of the judgment fully describes the criminal acts constituting the offense, while the judgment is clear and readable and the reasoning provides complete explanations of the decisive facts.

The second-instance court also deemed unfounded the defense’s claims that the monitoring of Gjukanović’s phone had been conducted unlawfully, relying on a previous Court of Appeals order dated 20 January 2026.

The claims alleging an incorrect determination of the factual circumstances were likewise rejected on the grounds that the Basic Court had correctly and fully established the factual circumstances and had justified them in the challenged judgment.

The Appeals Court’s decision states that the first-instance court gave clear and complete reasons explaining how the defendant, Jelena Gjukanović, committed the criminal offense, and that the criminal panel agrees with this conclusion as just and lawful, because the evidence presented during the trial established that the defendant had actively participated in the intelligence activities of Serbia’s BIA.

According to the Appeals Court, the claims of violations of criminal law were also rejected as unfounded because the proven factual circumstances show that Gjukanović’s actions contained all the objective and subjective elements of the criminal offense of which she was convicted.

Regarding the PSRK’s sentence appeal, the Appeals Court deemed it unfounded, finding that the sentence imposed by the Basic Court was just, lawful and proportionate to the seriousness of the criminal offense.

The Appeals Court accepted that the circumstances used to determine the sentence had been assessed lawfully and correctly, emphasizing that the first-instance court had fully considered all the circumstances that influenced the type and severity of the sentence. The PSRK’s claims that the sentence was not proportionate to the gravity of the criminal offense were therefore unfounded.

Based on these findings, the Court of Appeals decided to uphold the challenged judgment.

The judicial panel that issued the decision consisted of Avni Mehmeti as chair, Vaton Durguti as reporting judge, and Albina Shabani-Rama as a member.

Separately, the Kosovo Republic Special Prosecutor’s Office had filed an indictment against Jelena Gjukanović on 2 September 2025, accusing her of having knowingly and intentionally, from an unspecified date and continuing until her arrest on 28 February 2025, while serving as a local official in the OSCE mission in Kosovo at the Regional Office in Mitrovica as a “national programme officer at the Regional Centre in Mitrovica,” repeatedly carried out acts constituting active assistance to the intelligence activities of the Intelligence and Security Agency of the Republic of Serbia (BIA).

According to the indictment, Gjukanović provided Vllajić with sensitive data, documents and information obtained while performing her official duties within the OSCE mission. This assistance was provided through numerous communications with the BIA resident agent, Aleksandar Vllajić, who had already been convicted of espionage.

The indictment states that Gjukanović passed Vllajić information documented in reports that directly concerned the constitutional order, institutional security and the internal activities of the Republic of Kosovo’s institutions. The information was subsequently transmitted to senior BIA officials, including the BIA officer responsible for the Novi Pazar region in Serbia and the BIA in Belgrade.

The indictment further states that, by exploiting her position at the OSCE and following instructions from Vllajić and BIA officials during official meetings and while drafting OSCE reports on the political and security situation in Kosovo, the defendant helped create a hostile narrative against the Republic of Kosovo’s security institutions, statehood and territorial integrity.

Through these deliberate actions, the defendant seriously undermined the constitutional order and national security, seriously endangering the lives and personal safety of state officials, citizens of the country and international personnel of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo.

Jelena Gjukanović was accused of committing the criminal offense of “espionage” under Article 124, paragraph 3, in conjunction with Article 77 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kosovo.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is an international organization concerned with security, democracy and human rights. Through its mission, it also has an official presence and headquarters in Kosovo.