Lawyers of Zaric and Pantic: We proposed alternative measures, but the court ordered custody - we will appeal

The lawyers of Zarko Zaric and Momir Pantovic, Dejan A. Vasic and Nebojsa Vlajic, announce their appeals against the decision on the detention measure for their clients.

Zarko Zaric and Momir Pantic were ordered to be detained for 30 days by the Basic Court in Pristina on suspicion of having committed a war crime in the municipality of Istok during the war in Kosovo.

Zarko Zaric's lawyer, Dejan A. Vasic, said that appeals would be filed with the Court of Appeals tomorrow.

"We indicated to the court that there is no reasonable doubt that this measure should be imposed, we also indicated that there was no danger that he would run away. The court did not accept our arguments. We will file appeals tomorrow, so we hope that the Court of Appeals will be more receptive," Vasic said.

Momir Pantic's lawyer, Nebojsa Vlajiv, pointed out that ordering a one-month detention for the Serbs who were arrested for alleged war crimes was an inertia that was repeated year after year, and from case to case.

"The Public Prosecutor claims that it is necessary and that detention must be ordered because there is a great risk of escape. He cited several cases where detention was not ordered, which we are not aware of, and which cannot be conducted because the defendants fled. We cited many more cases where detention was not ordered and no one escaped, and nothing bad happened in terms of the criminal procedure. We asked for the same in this case; we proposed a number of alternative measures, from house arrest to handing over personal documents, even bail, but the court has not decided on it for now, it decided to order detention. We will file a complaint and we will see how the case will develop further," Vlajic said.

Zarko Zaric (1954) from the village of Ljubozda, municipality of Istok, is suspected by the Prosecution of allegedly committing a war crime against the civilian population in Kosovo in the period from 1998 to 1998.

He was arrested yesterday in his village.

Momir Pantic, from Istok, who was arrested two days ago in Merdare, is charged with command responsibility for certain events that happened during the war in Kosovo in 1999, in the municipality of Istok.