Časlav Jolić from Istok once again stated that he does not feel guilty of the allegations that he committed war crimes, at the beginning of the new trial in the basic court of temporary institutions in Pristina.
Previously, the appellate court annulled the first-instance verdict of eight years in prison to which he was sentenced in June last year.
At the beginning of the new trial, the prosecutor and the defense gave introductory remarks.
Jovana Filipović, Časlav Jolić’s lawyer, stated that she expects the retrial to be conducted much better compared to the previous one, reports RTS.
“We reminded the court that we must evaluate all the statements of the witnesses as a whole, not partially, as was the case last time. The prosecution’s claim that witnesses cannot remember some things, that it is not important whether someone had this or that uniform, this or that color, which I find truly worrying, because it is an indication of how proceedings are conducted, especially when it comes to war crimes,” said Filipović after the hearing.
She added that she hopes that the retrial will not be conducted in such a way as to look only to incriminate someone just because they are of Serbian nationality, but that the truth will really be looked at and whether the accused participated in the act he is charged with or not.
The continuation of the trial scheduled for March 25 and 26 will re-examine the prosecution’s witnesses.
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Chaslav Jolić was sentenced in June last year to eight years in prison, and after the verdict, his lawyer, Miodrag Brkljač, stated that it was a verdict without evidence.
In the appeal to the appellate court, Brkljač stated that the statements of witnesses and the cases presented during the trial do not incriminate Jolić that he committed the actions he is accused of.
Chaslav Jolić is from Istok, he is the father of four children, residing in Mrčajevci in central Serbia.
He was arrested on June 3, 2022 in Đurakovac near Istok, on suspicion of committing a war crime against the civilian population between 1998 and 1999.
Jolić came to Istok at that time for a probate hearing, after his father’s death.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office in Pristina filed an indictment against him on November 18, 2022, because he allegedly, during the conflict in Kosovo and Metohija, in complicity with other persons, violating the rules of international law, applied measures of torture and infliction of great suffering or injury to the physical integrity or health of the civilian population that did not directly participate in the conflict.
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Source: B92, Photo: Printscreen