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Podujevo 1999 – Beyond Reasonable DoubtWith the decision of the District Court in Belgrade, Kv. br. 391/03 dated 26February 2003, the criminal proceedings against Dejan Demirović, initiatedwith the charge of the Municipal Public Prosecution Office in Prokuplje,Kt. br. 25/99, dated 5 April 2002, for a war crime against civilian population,as described in Article 142, Paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code of theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia, were separated from the criminal proceedingsagainst defendant Saša Cvjetan.The District Public Prosecution Office in Belgrade took over the indictmentof the District Public Prosecution Office in Prokuplje, Kt. br. 25/99, dated 5April 2002, so that the indictment of the District Public Prosecution Officein Belgrade, Kt. br. 1273/02, dated 13 February 2004, detailed and amendedon 8 June 2005, charged the defendant, Saša Cvjetan, with the commissionof a war crime against civilian population, as described in Article 142,Paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.With the same warrant, the deputy Public Prosecutor cancelled any furthercriminal proceedings against defendant Saša Cvjetan on the charge of committinga crime of unauthorised possession of firearms and ammunition asdescribed in Article 33, Paragraph 1, of the Law on Arms and Ammunitionsof the Republic of Serbia.Defendant Saša Cvjetan, on a number of occasions during the criminal proceedingsand at the time of investigation presented his defence. Before theDistrict Court in Prokuplje, at the main trial, on 9 October 2002, the defendantsaid:“I was born in Zadar, but my family used to live in Dalmatinska Ostružnica.My family was a family of labourers; my father was a driver and my mothera housewife. Beside me, my parents have two more children, so I have ayounger brother and a younger sister. The whole family used to live in Ostrovicawhere I attended elementary school and completed the first fourgrades; the remaining grades I completed in the village of Lišane, not farfrom Ostrovica. My family used to live modestly, honestly, I’d say nicely.The secondary, machine engineering school I completed in Benkovac. Afterthat, I attended and completed the secondary military school in the InstructionalCentre in Vrbas, that is, in Banja Luka.261