Pantovic: I believe the witness completely denied the indictment

Ljubomir Pantović
Source: Kosovo Online

Today's witness in the case against four Serbs, whom the Special Prosecution accuses of committing a terrorist act, did not confirm that any of the accused participated in this event, lawyer Ljubomir Pantovic said after the hearing.

Before the Special Department of the Basic Court in Pristina, the trial for Milun Milenkovic Lune, Dejan Pantic, Aleksandar Vlajic, and Miomir Vakic, accused by the Special Prosecution of carrying out a terrorist act, continued today with the questioning of a witness by the Prosecution. 

At today's hearing, witness N.F., a Kosovo police officer, was questioned, and according to lawyer Ljubomir Pantovic, who is defending Dejan Pantic, the witness did not confirm during his testimony that any of the accused were involved in the incident.

"I would say that today's witness not only failed to confirm the indictment, but I believe he completely denied the indictment brought by the special prosecutor. You heard his testimony; at no point did he confirm that any of the accused were involved in this event. I would say that the start of the hearing has been quite unfavorable for the Prosecution, but this is just the beginning of the trial, and we will see what happens next. In a week, we will have another hearing and new witnesses," Pantovic said.

The questioning of the second Prosecution witness was postponed for the next hearing because the defense had not been provided with his statement in advance.

"After that, we have four defense witnesses, followed by the presentation of material evidence. This is one of the rare cases, at least in my 29 years of work, where the Prosecution did not propose any witnesses in the indictment; they were added later. This is very unusual, especially considering that this is a serious criminal case with four defendants," Pantovic added.

One of Milun Milenkovic Lune's lawyers, Miodrag Brkljac, expresses satisfaction with today's hearing.

"I was particularly concerned about the procedural issue to which I objected, of course with the agreement of my colleagues, regarding the presence of a court investigator who sat in a chair next to the public prosecutor. According to no regulation can he be there, sitting in that position. He carried out investigative tasks assigned to him by the prosecutor, and with the end of the investigation, his job was essentially done. Naturally, the prosecutor has the right to consult with him, but outside the courtroom. The fact is, he cannot be present in the courtroom. We saw that the court accepted this and politely asked him to leave, which he did, and my colleagues and I are satisfied with that outcome," Brkljac said.

Predrag Miljkovic, also a lawyer for Milun Milenkovic Lune, points out that today's postponement of the second witness's testimony was due to the defense being "kept in the dark."

"The witness who was supposed to testify today was not listed in the indictment, although he should have been. He was proposed during the main hearing when he couldn't be proposed. His statement is not part of the case file, and it was not provided to the defense in time – it was given to us today. We were caught off guard. At one point, I thought it was a police report, so I requested a one-hour delay to familiarize ourselves with the report. Then, I was informed by the court that it was a four-page statement that hadn't even been translated. For this reason, we justifiably requested a postponement to review the material for the first time," Miljkovic said.