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Podujevo 1999 – Beyond Reasonable Doubthim are underway and this defence, for the time being, cannot be the subjectof the court’s decision.Defendant Saša Cvjetan, in the preceding trial, at the time of the first hearingby the investigative judge, had admitted essential facts concerning thecommission of the crime of murder. Later on, in the course of the proceedings,he revoked his confession providing detailed explanations for it. Thedefendant, first of all, insisted that, at the time of his first hearing by theinvestigative judge in Prokuplje, his defence lawyer was not present, althoughthe presence of a defence lawyer was recorded in the minutes ofthe hearing.Following the objections of the Supreme Court, for the purpose of determiningthe facts concerning the presence of a defence lawyer, the courtheard the witnesses whose hearing was mentioned in the Supreme Court’sdecision on the cancellation of the verdict. Following the order of the SupremeCourt, the following persons were heard at the main trial: the investigativejudge of the District Court in Prokuplje, Mijat Bajović, who was thefirst to question the defendant; Radica Marinković, the recording secretaryof the District Court in Prokuplje working with this investigative judge; Aleksandarorević, the then warden of the District Prison in Prokuplje. Besidethem, in his capacity as a witness, attorney Živorad Šubaranović fromProkuplje was heard; he was court-assigned defence lawyer of defendantDejan Demirović.Investigative judge Mijat Bajović gave a detailed description of the circumstancesprevailing at the time the defendant was questioned and the investigationin Podujevo was carried out. He confirmed the authenticity ofthe minutes of the questioning of the defendant that he himself had dictated,about the presence of the attorney of the defendant - lawyer DragutinStanković. In addition to the fact that the court has no legal basis to suspectthe contents of the minutes, the court has no reasons to suspect the veracityof the statement of an investigative judge heard in the capacity of a witness.The investigative judge gave a detailed description of the problemshe had in carrying out the investigation and ensuring the presence of a defenceattorney for the defendant under the conditions prevailing at the timeof war. At that, the investigative judge himself went to look for a defence attorneyand found lawyer Dragutin Stanković and the two of them, togeth-321