A status conference was held today in the basic court of the temporary institutions in Pristina before the start of the trial of five Serbs accused of allegedly committing a war crime against the civilian population in the Gnjilane region during the conflict in KiM, and Jovana Filipovic, the lawyer for Dragan Cvetkovic, who is the only one of the accused under house arrest, expressed hope that the defense will succeed in proving that the accused did not commit the crime they are charged with.
Filipovic said that 22 prosecution witnesses will be heard in this case, and that the defense has proposed the hearing of 20 witnesses.
“Today, before the Basic Court in Pristina, special department, we held a type of hearing to create a plan regarding how we will proceed with this very extensive procedure. In this case, there are a total of five accused, and a large number of witnesses have been proposed. We believe, and what the judicial panel also noted, that about 40 court hearings will be necessary to resolve this legal issue and for us to be able to reach a certain conclusion in this case,” Filipovic stated.
She emphasized that she hopes that in this case the defense will succeed in proving what it has claimed from the very beginning, which is that the accused did not commit the crime they are charged with.
“That all these people lived in Kosovo, that they never had any problems with the law, and that they would least of all commit the crime of a war crime and continue with their lives in Gnjilane, in a place where any of the victims could possibly recognize them, and I say that no one has done so for a full 25 years,” Filipovic stressed.
Bogdan Lazic, who represents Slobodan Jevtic, stated that he proposed to the court to take into account the health condition of his client.
“I am scared and afraid for his health condition, because in the last two or three months he has changed his skin color, and during that period no examination, no blood test has been done. The court today took it upon itself to speed that up and be in contact with the detention service and perform all the necessary analyses,” Lazic said.
The opening words of the defense and the prosecution in this case are scheduled for November 10 and 11.
On August 3, 2024, Dragan Nicic, Slobodan Jevtic, Dragan Cvetkovic, and Milos Sosic were arrested in Pasjane, while Nenad Stojanovic was arrested in the village of Bosce near Kosovska Kamenica.
On December 27 of last year, the prosecution in Pristina filed an indictment against them on suspicion that during the conflict in the AP of Kosovo and Metohija, allegedly as part of a criminal group, in complicity with other unidentified members, armed and dressed in camouflage uniforms, as regular and irregular members of the Serbian police or army, they participated in the killing of eight Albanian civilians.
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Source: Tanjug; Photo: Euronews / Vladislav Ćup