The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) alerts to the impermissible conduct of part of Serbia’s judiciary in the trial of persons accused of killing four members of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) in the attempt to assassinate the SPO leader on the Ibar Road in October 1999. In its first-instance judgement handed down in the retrial, the Belgrade District Court additionally reduced the prison sentences pronounced against some defendants. The mitigated sentence of former Serbian State Security chief Radomir Marković and the acquittal of former Belgrade State Security chief Milan Radonjić, who had held these posts at the time this crime was committed, are the most dubious. Moreover, the perpetrators of the multiple killing have been convicted to 14 years in jail each. The BCHR has no intention of interfering in the assessment of the court but it does expect of the Supreme Court of Serbia, as a court of full juridisction, to finally assume responsibility. Instead of merely quashing the first-instance judgement, it should take a position-decision on the charges and convict the defendants to sentences reflecting the gravity of the crime, the evidence and all circumstances of the case, notably the fact that the crime was committed during the fulfilment of the horrendous order to the abused state security service to freely kill people across Serbia and thus “restore order” on the political stage of Milošević’s Serbia. The Court also ought to finally declare itself on the following issue of principle – which convictions can be pronounced under the valid criminal law in Serbia. This is the Supreme Court of Serbia’s last opportunity to put an end to the mockery of the victims’ families and demonstrate that crimes cannot go unpunished and that those who inspired and organised the most serious crimes shall be fully taken to task.
