A Kosovo lawyer has been sentenced to 150 days in prison for sending a message to journalist Vehbi Kajtazi, owner of news website Paparaci, threatening to douse him with gasoline.

The Prishtina Basic Court on Monday sentenced lawyer Driton Dobruna to 150 days in prison after he admitted sending a death threat to a Kosovo journalist, Vehbi Kajtazi. Neither Kajtazi nor Dobruna were present in court when Judge Dibran Jusufi announced the verdict, which can be appealed.

Dobruna was accused of sending Kajtazi the threatening message through Facebook Messenger on October 9.

“Do you know what is the hardest pain for someone… to douse him with gasoline and extinguish it two minutes later with firefighters, and do it on repeat until you die. You have killed me. Now I am just a soulless body. Be sure, I will keep the promise, together, you and I will go to hell,” said the message Kajtazi received from the defendant.

The prosecution said that Kajtazi was sent the threat over an article published on the Pristina-based news website Insajderi in May this year, although the victim was not the author of this article.

During the November 1 trial session, the defendant admitted the charge and apologised, saying that he was “in an aggravated emotional and psychological situation” when he wrote the message.

His lawyer, Adhurim Gashi, asked the court to take into consideration the guilty plea of his client and impose “a milder, even conditional, sentence”.

In its annual report on Kosovo issued last week, the European Commission noted that “concerns remain regarding physical attacks and threats, public smear campaigns and hate speech directed against journalists”.

Not all threats against journalists and media are reported to the authorities, although 2022 saw a slight increase in number of reported cases, the report said.