Krstić was imprisoned in 1882 by the Ottomans, and held in the Bitola prison. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He wrote nine letters to the Serbian consulate in Bitola, Milojko Veselinović. During the Greco-Turkish War (1897), the Bulgarians granted amnesty to Bulgarians held in Ottoman prisons; Micko refused to identify as Bulgarian and stayed in jail. Finally, in 1901, the Serbian consulate managed to have him released, though he was under house arrest in Bitola, and was obliged to contact the town government every day.