(ANSA-AFP) - BELGRADE, APR 24 - A Kosovo court handed three men lengthy jail sentences on Friday for taking part in a failed armed secession attempt by Serb separatists in the country's north in 2023. Charged with terrorism, two were sentenced to life in jail while the third was sentenced to 30 years for their part in a deadly clash between dozens of heavily armed men, led by Kosovo Serb Milan Radoicic, and Kosovo police in Banjska, close to the Serbian border. One Kosovo police officer and three Serb gunmen were killed in the hours-long gun battle, with the group sheltering inside a monastery before fleeing from police into Serbia. "It is confirmed that they tried to secede the north of Kosovo and join it with Serbia," Ngadhnjim Arrni, the chair of the three-judge panel, said while delivering the verdict. Only one of the defendants attended the hearing in person. Dozens of reporters, family members and onlookers packed Pristina's Basic Court to watch the high-profile verdict. In a lengthy indictment, prosecutors had argued for life sentences for all three men. But lawyers for the men, who had pleaded not guilty to the charges, argued that there was no evidence to support their role in the attack. (ANSA-AFP).