Vasic: How detained Serbs feel – only their souls know

Lawyer Dejan Vasic, who represents several Serbs accused of war crimes in Kosovo courts, believes that, apart from being separated from their families, the most difficult aspect for them is the fact that they are innocent in prison and that they don't know what will happen to them.

Vasic is currently defending seven Serbs in the detention of the Special Department of the Special Court in Pristina, specifically in the prison in Podujevo.

All of them are charged with the crime of "war crime," which is why lawyers, according to Vasic, have organized legal teams to defend them.

"We took it upon ourselves to ensure that these people have legal teams to represent them. There was simply too much pressure on individuals to handle and defend these complex cases. About seven of them who are now in detention are mostly charged with the crime of war crimes," Vasic says.

He explains that it is challenging to say who among the detained Serbs is having the hardest time because each one is facing serious problems. The most challenging aspect for them is that they have no contact with their families and that many people in prison are innocent.

He points out that families are in an equally difficult psychological situation because they lack adequate information about what is happening with their family members in prison.

"The hardest thing for them is what is happening to the family, and for families, the hardest thing is what is happening to them there. It's interconnected," Vasic explains.

Vasic emphasizes that Sladjan Trajkovic is in very poor health, Gavrilo Milosavljevic's family was unable to visit for a long time, and Zarko Zaric's family expected him to be released and celebrate New Year together with them in the village of Ljubozda, where, as Vasic points out, he has been celebrating with Albanian neighbors for years.

"Dragisa Milenkovic is practically 15 kilometers in a straight line from his home, innocent, in detention. How these people feel, only their souls know," Vasic says.

Speaking about the legal order in Kosovo, our interlocutor emphasizes that the state and the law have always been the exclusive and only authority.

"Sometimes this authority is exercised through formal procedures, and sometimes through procedures that do not care about formalities. Now, not only Kosovo but the whole world has reached the stage where no one cares about any formalities, laws, or international norms. It seems to me that no one cares about others, and now it is becoming normal to wage wars, bomb, and harm civilians, and do other things that suggest that, in essence, that legal order and system are so endangered that they almost do not exist," he said.