Defence seeks release of indictees in the murder of Oliver Inanovic

In their final address, defenders of indictees Marko Rosic, Nedelky Spasojevicq, Dragisa Markovik, Zarko Jovanovic and Silvana Arsovic, who are accused of involvement in the murder of Serbian politician Oliver Ivanovic, demanded by the tribunal that the same be released from the prosecution in the absence of evidence.

In the final address, defendant Spasojevic's defender, lawyer Faruk Korenica has said he doubts there are evidence that his defense is found guilty reports “Justice bet”.

He has cited statements by anonymous witnesses in this criminal case, which said the defence was not given the opportunity to present indirect questions.

“ ...we are not allowed to present indirect questions to anonymous witnesses A1, B1 and B3 unfortunately in whose statements the prosecutor supports his final word”, said lawyer Kornica.

He has also said that during the phase of the investigation, there have been many abuses that have cost everyone dearly and the state that has given enough money for the procedure.

According to him, there were also attempts at counterfeiting which, as an example, he drew a picture of his defense when the same one was identified by annomin A1 witness.

He (an anonymous witness) said I saw pictures of the documentation that was offered to me and has the characteristic eyebrows joined, in this picture there are three people, uniformed policemen that no one has identical eyebrows that are presented here”, Kornica said.

But according to him, someone deliberately or otherwise has joined his defense eyebrows that the person leaned A1 with the easy identification.

Regarding the scene, lawyer Korenica said that video footage has shown that his defender has stayed at the scene only 11 minutes as a competent body for preserving the site.

After that the regional police have arrived what is seen in the material has taken all of my defense's authorisations and has been able to work only at the command of the person responsible by the regional police, here it means that all of his obligations are very professionally done, on camera points that no person has gone past the prosecutor's claim to have nothing to prove”, he added further.

This indictment, according to him, is the first indictment that has occurred in Kosovo courts when the prosecution has self-initiatedly changed it three times.

He has said the criminal procedure does not allow assumptions, as mentioned in the indictment that his defence has helped the suspects.

“Dmth has been used by the plural word, more than one, the defendant to eliminate the obstacles of committing a criminal act has enabled suspects to move with the official “Golf 4”, I wish they were one, two, or three, or four or five”, he said.

The accused Spasojevic, in his final address, said he has never committed crime in his life, nor has he been associated with people of criminal society.

Meanwhile, the defender of the accused Rosic, lawyer Mahmut Halimi during his final speech, has said that no evidence has ever been provided that his defense was seen conveying the movements of the late Ivanovic.

According to him, the prosecution in no single words has given in the direction of claims filed in the indictment, that the accused here, under the leadership of Zelko Bojq, Zvonko Veselinovic and Milan Radojic who are on the run have acted as a criminal group with coutors as a result of their actions has come to Ivanovic's murder.

Not a single word in the closing word, but the prosecution hasn't even previously given these claims to convince an objective observer that actions have actually taken place in the way the prosecution described”, Halimi said.

And as for some testimony from witnesses, lawyer Halimi said the same cannot be appointed otherwise than by the content of gossip and that according to legal provisions, they should be considered inappropriate evidence.

The same one has proposed to the court that against his defender the issue of loose judgment has not been proved to have committed the same offense.

The final word has followed by defender Arsovic, lawyer Jovana Filipovic, who said this indictment is based on relation to her defense, while what has been proven so far is that the indictment is based largely and exclusively on assumptions.

According to lawyer Filipovovic, all the witnesses agree on one thing, and that is that her defense has had no connection to the part she's burdened with.

As for the criminal offence of office abuse, lawyer Filipovic said her defense had no position to misuse.

In the end, she said that on the basis of the evidence released or even on the basis of this chaotic act, there is no other act of judgment but a free judgment.

Charged Arsovovic, in her final address, said she did nothing of what the prosecution accuses her, adding that she is incapable of something like that, is not educated that way and that moral and human principles do not allow her to think about it.

Why would I do that? With Oliver's death I've just lost, I've got too much, because he was my friend first of all, he was my employer, my backer”, she said.

Arsovic said he believes that the court will bring justice, the right decision and that he believes the system of values exists.

God knows that I am not guilty and that I can freely stand before him, just as today I stand here with you, I hope and I want to believe that besides divine justice there is justice on earth and that by this and justice will be on the same side”, Arsovic said.

In addition, the defender of the accused Markovic, lawyer Dejan Vasic, in his final address stated that from statements by all witnesses who have testified about this event is the fact that none of them have heard shots and that there has been no drop of blood at the scene and that, according to him, they all thought Ivanovic had fainted and that in that sense all actions of his defense should be interpreted.

According to Vasic, the prosecution says it has proved that on that day its defender has called a person in the Republic of Serbia, while his defence in his statement has said he has called for the immediate aid, which, according to him, are two different sources.

“One who says he has called the person called... while the report Serbia has submitted under international judicial co-operation confirms Dragisa's words that he has called help quickly. Mayor, it's yours who you're going to believe one or the other even if he called the person he didn't call, even if that person was employed by the Serbian police and he didn't know he could have told that person that Oliver had failed to faint”, Vasic said.

And according to him, how is it possible for someone to think that this is the official secret that Ivanovis has fainted since, according to him, Article 433 paragraph 5 says that official secrecy is information or document that by law or by other provisions or by the decision of the competent body has been declared as official secrecy.

He proposed to defend his defense to issue a freewilling act.

On the other hand, defender of accused Jovanovic, lawyer Ljubomir Pantovic, in his final address has said they do not stand up to the prosecution's claims that his defender has committed the criminal act of misusing the official position or authority for which he said his defender did not perform this work.

According to him, the prosecution claims that his defence guard Jovanovic and other indictee Markovik have misused their official duty in the manner that following Ivanovic's murder, they have emerged at the scene of the event, which the country has not secured well and allowing other people to intervene in that space.

But in this regard, he said that at the moment when these two accused men have come out near party headquarters and have seen Ivanovic's body lying on the sidewalk, no one has believed or knew the same one was killed.

Which, according to him, that place has become the site of a legal-priced event much later.

Then when they came in there it was a place where a man was shot down and where he was believed according to all the information he was then having some health problems and then these two people had no obligation to stop citizens from going through that place”, Pantovic said.

The same demanded that his defender be acquitted of criminal abuse of office because he has not been proven to have committed this crime.

As for the illegal weapons criminal offense, lawyer Pantovic said his defense had authorized a pistol for which he pleaded guilty, which he demanded to have his sentence pronounced on him.

A final word unlike other lawyers had the defender of accused Rade Basara, lawyer Arber Osmanaj, who said the prosecution's withdrawal from prosecution to protect him is based on facts of the case that resulted in judicial examination and particularly the confirmation of his defence alibi that the same has not been found on the territory of the Republic of Kosovo on the day of critical events.

Therefore, according to him, this withdrawal from prosecution is based on legal reasons for which he proposed to the court to issue a rejection act of judgment.

Similarly, at this special prosecutor Burim Cerkini hearing in his final address, he said that in the absence of evidence he is drawn from prosecution against accused Rade Basara.

At the June 13th session, Basara had decided to defend herself silently.

Otherwise, the initial session was held on February 11, 2020, while the Constitutional Court in Pristina, on April 6, 2020, had refused requests for dropping the indictment on December 27, 2019, and objections to the evidence.

Following the complaints of four lawyers, the Court of Appeals had approved their complaints and the case had been returned to restoration and the Foundation was required to eliminate contradictions, enabling the prosecutor to declare or correct and fulfill the indictment in order to comply with the 241 KPK article.

According to the indictment, indictees Nedjlo Spasojevic, Marko Rosic, Rade Basara and Silvana Arsovic are charged with co-operating with indictees Zeiko Bojq, Zvonko Veselinovic and Milan Radojic, who are on the run and two other unknown defendants, acting as a criminal group aimed at expanding control in the northern part of Mitrovica, both in political life and general activity of the organised criminal group, have acted deliberately and known to carry out the criminal offense, where each of the defendants has now occurred in the day of Oliver Ivanovi's death, having committed concrete actions in the political life and general activity of this group, and the prosecution group has now felt like a criminal murder group.

Indictee Dragisa Markovic is charged with “Statement of official secrecy” by Article 433, par. 2.1 Penal Code. Markovic and Zarko Jovanovic are also charged with “Using official duty in co-ordination” by Article 422, par.1 related to par.2, subpar. 2.2 connected to Article 31 of Penal Code.

Also, accused Jovanovic is charged with criminal work “retaining ownership, control or unauthorized possession of weapons” by Article 374, par.1 of the Criminal Code. The accused Nedeljko Spasojevicc, on the other hand, is also charged with criminal work “holding ownership, control or unauthorized possession of weapons” by Article 374, par.2 related to par.1 of the Penal Code.

While, on December 27, 2023, the Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo (PSRK) has filed charges against Milan Mihajlovic over Ivanovic's murder case, which he charges with four criminal acts.