13.07.2015 Views

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Humanitarian Law CenterGjata family houses. In his defence presented at the main trial, the defendantstated that he had discovered a pistol in one of the rooms that he hadappropriated, reporting the event to his superiors.The court gave complete credence to the statement of witness Rexhep Kastrati.In his description of the event, the witness was precise, and categoricalin his identification of the defendant. His description of the appearanceof the defendant and his behaviour completely fits the impressionthat the defendant usually leaves. Although the details of the event had notbeen described earlier by the defendant, it was only after hearing the witnessRexhep Kastrati that the defendant described the details of the eventwhich, except the account of taking the money, overlap with the statementgiven by the witness Rexhep Kastrati. Obviously, the witness was telling thetruth - not showing a tendency to give an inappropriate description of theevent and was speaking about the things he was sure of. Because of that,the court gave credence to the part of his statement that he had given thedefendant a 1,000 German mark note which the defendant had taken.The court gave credence to the statement of witness Florim Gjata as well.However, as this witness had not identified the defendant, the court foundthat the defendant had not been in direct contact with him. Still, the statementof this witness explained the chronology of the event. The witness, infact, stated that he had heard the volley which the defendant admitted tohave fired in the air in the street at the moment witness Gjata was still in thecourtyard. It is obvious that witness Kastrati and his family were the first toleave the same courtyard and only then witness Florim Gjata and his familyso that the event described by witness Kastrati preceded the event describedby witness Gjata where it is impossible to confirm with any amountof certainty the participation of the defendant.After the event in the courtyard of the Gjata family house, the defendantreturned to one of the houses to search it, in his words, and found a pistolin one of these houses which he appropriated and then, in his words, reportedthis to the superiors of his unit.Witness Radoslav Olujić confirmed the part of the defendant’s defence relatingto the situation concerning witness Rexhep Kastrati. Namely, he waswith the defendant when they had come to the Gjata family house and296

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!