Material evidence administered in war crimes trial against former guard Milenkovic

In this case, Dragisa Milenkovic is charged that, in the quality of the guard in Pristina and Lipjan prison, he has brutally tortured prisoners, reports “Justice Vow”.

Court Attorney At and Dema said he does not see it necessary to propose reading the statements of witnesses in the quality of material evidence, since the same have been heard in this judicial examination.

However, he proposed that the evidence pertaining to the illegal weapons prosecution charged by accused Milenkovic be read.

And the defender of accused Dragisa Milenkovic, lawyer Dejan Vasic, said that through the June 6th 2024 parade, one of them has called for the prosecution to hand over earlier witness statements, Arsim Zyba, which one of them has handed over. U n NMIC and the other near EULEX. So he requested that these statements be offered by the Prosecutor.

Also, lawyer Vasic proposed that both evidence and processes of identification of accused Dragisa Milenkovic from witnesses Ramadan Nishori and Ilmi Jylani be included.

But, prosecutor Dema said that for the witness Nishori there are processor and it has been sent to him along with other subject papers, while for Julien, he said there is no processor of identification.

The defence has also proposed four confirmations of labour relations for four people who have been employed in the Pristina prison, for which the defence said there are contradictions to witness testimony.

These proposals, the prosecution has argued that they have no representation with the object of the prosecution, and in no case were involved in the indictment.

Later, the chairman of the court, Kujtim Krasniqi, has refused the prosecution's proposal for reading evidence pertaining to the illegal weapons criminal conduct, since the accused has only pleaded guilty to this criminal offence.

Similarly, it has rejected the defence proposal for the security of the processor to identify accused Milenkovic, by Ilmi Jylani, as this report is not found in the subject's paperwork, and the prosecution stated that no identification chip was made.

Judge Krasniqi also rejected the proposal regarding Arsim Zyba statements, since the same have not been proposed in the indictment and that the prosecution does not own those statements.

The court has also rejected defence proposals concerning labour relations because issued documents are from another state and are unable to prove their authenticity due to the lack of international judicial co-operation with the state of Serbia.

While, the defence proposal was approved to administer as material evidence photos handed over by the defence, which are also used during the judicial review.

The incident, founded on December 26th, 2023 by the Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo, charges Dragisa Milenkovjcin that in the quality of Pristina and Lipjan Prison Guardian, during the period of war in Kosovo 1998-1999, in Pristina and Lipjan Prison, in systematic co-ordination had persecuted Albanian prisoners.

On January 10, 2024, Milenkovic was declared innocent of war crimes at the initial session, while he pleaded guilty to illegal possession.