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Podujevo 1999 – Beyond Reasonable Doubthad told him to let that man go, the defendant hit the man in the face withthe butt of his rifle and then let him go. The witness then joined a group ofcivilians and all of them went along the street in the direction shown them.When the column was on the way, the defendant fired a volley in the air.Witness Gjata Florim was in the same group with Rexhep Kastrati. He was,with his family, staying in Isak Gjata’s house located in the same courtyardwith Sabit Gjata’s house where Rexhep Kastrati and his family were staying.This witness, too, stated that on 28 March 1999 a large group of uniformedmen entered their courtyard and told them all to leave the house.He, together with his wife, children and parents went out, but he and hisfather were stopped on the stairs by two persons in green uniforms. Oneof them threatened the witness, but the other one told him to let them go,as the witness was carrying his small child in his arms. The witness thenleft the house and, on his way out, heard the sound of a volley fired froman automatic rifle, coming from the street. Once in the street, the witnessjoined the column consisting of his relatives and then noticed that nobodywas hurt.Witness Florim Gjata could not say whether he had seen the defendant thatday at the crime scene, although he stated that he might be able to identifythe two who had approached him on the stairs, but he could not answerwhether defendant Saša Cvjetan might have been one of them.Defendant Saša Cvjetan himself, partly confirming the statement of witnessRexhep Kastrati, contributed to the explanation of his participation in theevent. After the questioning of witness Rexhep Kastrati, the defendant statedthat it was true that he had been the one person who the witness hadidentified. On that occasion, denying that he had taken the money fromthe witness’s sister, the defendant stated that he had spoken with the witness,asked him where the doors inside the house were leading to and hadpushed the witness with the butt of his rifle, allowing that he might haveheld the rifle levelled at the witness. The defendant confirmed that, afterthe witness had got up and joined the rest of the people in the street, hehad fired a short volley in the air. This, in his words, he had done for securityreasons, so the people would go away and couldn’t see that his platoonwould take accommodation in those houses. The defendant also explainedthe sequence of the events, stating that he had, immediately afterthat, returned to this house, which would mean that that was one of the295