The Serbian government sees the trial of Citizens’ Initiative SDP leader Oliver Ivanovic as a “political trial par excellence” and will demand from the international community that he be immediately released pending a verdict, the head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Marko Djuric said on Friday.
For months, Ivanovic has been behind bars unjustly, “in conditions no innocent man should be in,” Djuric told a press conference.
Djuric said that Ivanovic – sentenced by an EULEX panel of judges in January to nine years in prison for war crimes committed in Kosovska Mitrovica in 1999 – was denied the right to a fair trial and that the proceedings were “influenced by different political structures.”
“What has happened to Ivanovic can happen to any Kosovo-Metohija Serb and that is why we must be united in his defence,” Djuric said.
An appeal procedure is currently under way before the court of appeals and could take months, said Ivanovic’s lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic, adding that his client has been in custody for 27 months.
Source: Tanjug
Related Articles
