During the NATO intervention against the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in June 1999, several members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, including Lekaj, abducted 13 people from a Roma wedding, detained them in a hotel in Djakovica where they physically and sexually abused them for several days.
According to the ruling, on 14 June 1999 Lekaj and his fellow soldiers killed one of the abducted men in the hotel in Djakovica and the following day they took another three men to a location near the hotel and executed them.
Lekaj pleaded not guilty to all counts of the indictment, stressing he did not recognise the jurisdiction of the Belgrade court. The court dismissed the request of Lekaj's defence lawyers that the case be referred to Kosovo's judiciary.
Lekaj will remain in custody until the judgment becomes final.