HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER

TRIAL OF FIVE ETHNIC ALBANIAN STUDENTS POSTPONED

25 January 2000

The trial of five ethnic Albanian students at Belgrade University who have been charged with terrorism and seditious conspiracy was postponed at the Belgrade District Court because of the illness of a member of the panel of judges. All other persons called, including the students parents, were present in the courtroom. Defendants Petrit and Driton Berisha, Dritan Meca, Shkodran Derguti and Abdulah Islam have been in custody since mid-April last year when they were arrested in Belgrade. When the trial opened in November 1999, they and witnesses who gave testimony denied all counts of the indictment and the defendants involvement in preparing acts of terrorism and the collection of funds for the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). They also raised the question of the manner in which police collected the evidence, pointing to the possibility that the KLA insignia and two hand grenades allegedly found during the search of the students rented apartment were planted, and said the list of names of Kosovo Albanians in Belgrade with their military assignments was a forgery. The prosecutor withdrew his motion for the inclusion in the trial record of a self-incriminating statement made under duress by Petrit Berisha during police detention, and statements by two witnesses, which, according to defense counsel, were taken in violation of the Criminal Procedure Code and are therefore inadmissible.

The trial is scheduled to resume on 18 February.