BELGRADE, April 13 (Hina) - The special court for combating organised crime on Tuesday resumed the trial against 13 defendants charged with assassinating Serbia's Prime Minister Zoran Djidjic. Of the 13 accused, only five are
attending the trial, while the other eight men are being tried in absentia including the prime suspect, Milorad Lukovic a.k.a. Legija, a former commander of the Serbian interior ministry's unit for special purposes.
BELGRADE, April 13 (Hina) - The special court for combating organised
crime on Tuesday resumed the trial against 13 defendants charged with
assassinating Serbia's Prime Minister Zoran Djidjic. Of the 13
accused, only five are attending the trial, while the other eight men
are being tried in absentia including the prime suspect, Milorad
Lukovic a.k.a. Legija, a former commander of the Serbian interior
ministry's unit for special purposes.#L#
The trial continued after a 40-day recess, with the reading of a
statement which a defendant, Dusan Krsmanovic, who is now standing
mute, gave during a pre-trial process. Krsmanovic is believed to have
passed information to other indictees, helped some of them to escape
and to have been in the vicinity of the government's building on 12
March 2003 when Djindjic was killed.
On Tuesday, present at the trial were for the first time
representatives of the recently established Centre for Modern
Politics. This nongovernmental organisation, set up in Belgrade,
gathers mainly former ministers from the Djindjic cabinet as well as
many legal experts. One of the duties of the NGO is to monitor the
trial and inform the public on its course.
Following the request of lawyers of some defendants, the panel of
judges told today a former chairwoman of the Serbia assembly, Natasa
Micic, former deputy prime ministers Cedomir Jovanovic and Zarko
Korac, and a former interior minister, Nenad Milic, to leave the
courtroom as they might be called later to the main hearing as
witnesses.
The hearing will resume on Wednesday.
(Hina) ms