The conviction of Citizens’ Initiative SDP leader Oliver Ivanovic will affect the political stability and the security situation in northern Kosovo-Metohija, Milovan Drecun, chairman of the Serbian parliamentary committee on Kosovo-Metohija, said Thursday.
“Many Serbs will feel that the court was not objective enough and that it is a message to Serbs that they may be tried for something they have not done,” Drecun told Tanjug.
The trial was controversial from the start and the validity of witnesses accusing Ivanovic of alleged crimes was problematic, as were their statements and the fact that Ivanovic was not allowed to remain free pending a verdict despite Serbian government guarantees, Drecun said.
“All this indicated a potential politicisation of the trial,” Drecun said.
Earlier in the day, an Eulex panel of judges at the Kosovska Mitrovica Basic Court sentenced Ivanovic to nine years in prison for war crimes committed in the town in 1999.
Source: Tanjug
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