BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A Serbian court has acquitted the prime suspect in setting the U.S. embassy in Belgrade on fire in 2008, but has sentenced him to a year in prison for stealing property from the building.
A judge said Thursday there was no evidence that the 24-year-old Milan Zivanovic took part in the burning of the embassy when Serb rioters stormed the building on Feb. 21, 2008, in anger over Washington's support for the statehood of Kosovo, the predominantly ethnic Albanian province that had declared independence from Serbia.
But the judge said Zivanovic, a university student, took part in the stealing of a leather jacket and gloves that belonged to an embassy employee.
The attackers threw stones and flares at the embassy building. One person died in the rioting.
