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Podujevo 1999 – Beyond Reasonable Doubtconfirmed that the Attorney was present; his Court Reporter said the Attorneywas not there when the defendant was giving his statement, and Aleksandarorević, the Head of the Prison, gave a vague statement, whichwas, however, closer to the statement given by the Court Reporter RadicaMarinković.The Prokuplje District Acting Public Prosecutor, Višeslav Bukumirović, wasreceiving threatening letters in the course of this trial. During the trial, linesof former warriors, with flags and posters in their hands, were circlingaround the Court building. They were shouting slogans and protestingagainst this trial. The Humanitarian Law Center evaluated that the ProkupljeDistrict Court could not provide conditions for this trial to be conductedin line with the law and addressed to the Republic of Serbia SupremeCourt with a proposal that the further trial be conducted before the BelgradeDistrict Court. At the same time, the HLC published a report titled“In the Name of the Victims” in which it presented information regardingthis crime and the identity of victims which were unknown to the Prosecutor.The Republic of Serbia Supreme Court approved of the HLC’s requestsand made a ruling to delegate this case to the Belgrade District Court.Procedure before Belgrade District CourtThe first main hearing in the trial of Cvjetan Saša before the Belgrade DistrictCourt Trial Panel comprised of five members presided by Judge BiljanaSinanović, was held on 12 March 2003, many pieces of evidence were adducedin the course of this trial based on which it was certainly determinedthat 14 Albanians were killed, while another five were seriously injured inPodujevo on 28 March 1999. Thanks to the confidence in the HumanitarianLaw Center, five surviving children, who live outside Kosovo, and anothersix Albanian witnesses from Kosovo, gathered enough strength tocome and testify before the Court about this crime, which was committedagainst their closest family members and themselves.Based on the myriad of evidence, it is certain that the crime happened exactlyas it was described in the indictment. None of the witnesses examined,including the members of the “Scorpions” unit did not deny or challengein any way. The facts that on this occasion civilians, women and chil-355

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