Initial session for barricades in the north fails

Dusan Maksimovic, Milos Radosavljevic, Nemanja Jolovijq, Dusan Drobac, Srdjan Vucinic and Nenad Orloviq, reports Economy Online, broadcasts Periscope.

The judge of the case, Beqman Beqiri, said that accused Dusan Maksimovic, who had not been brought by the transport unit, missed the session, after the court had been announced in advance of his lawyer's absence.

defendant Dusan Maksimovic's “Since the court has been reported since this morning that lawyer Mahmut Halimi will not be present for reasons we will say, then the court has announced the transportation unit not to behave, in order to economy the procedure. The lawyer Mahmut Halimi is missing, through the parliament, has announced to the court that he will not be present with the reasoning that at the same time there is a session in Mitrovica -- the case with a measure of detention and set long ago”, he said.

Beqiri said accused Nemanja Jolovic is missing, for which invitation has returned undeserved, while Kosovo police have announced that according to neighbours he has moved to Serbia.

The defendant Nemanja Jolovic also happens. The same court has sent him a regular invitation, the closed envelope has returned to court with the agreement that this person has been displaced. Having changed his address, the court for the same has issued a warrant to bring him in, where Kosovo Police on the 1607.26 has announced the court has gone to execute the ordinance, but the residence is closed, while from contact with neighbours police have been reportedly displaced for Serbia”, he said.

According to the judge, because Jolovic's former lawyer had revoted authorisation, the court has appointed a new defence according to the Council of Lawyers' recommendation.

Because the lawyer who defended this defendant has recently refused authorisation, then the court has asked the Lawyers' Oda to recommend a lawyer who will protect this defendant. According to Oda's recommendation, there is attorney Donjeta Leka, who is present today at session”, he said.

The case prosecutor, Admir Shala, proposed that the procedure against Nemanja Jolovic be singled out so that the process can continue against the other indictees.

The “given that the same has not responded to the prosecution's invitation, perhaps for the economy of the procedure should be singled out procedures against him in order to continue the process with others”, he said.

Judge Beqiri, however, said that due to the lack of lawyer Mahmut Halimi, legal conditions for holding the session have not been met.

In the absence of lawyer Halimi, the court finds legal conditions have not been met to continue. So you make a decision, you postpone session”, he said.

Among the accused is Dusan Maksimovic, convicted of the terrorist attack on Banjska.

Kosovo's Special Prosecutor has filed charges against six indictees, who are suspected of setting up barricades in northern Kosovo municipalities from December 10th to December 29th, 2022.

According to the indictment, they, “acting in co-ordination and through the use of force and violence, have hampered the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo in establishing constitutional order, exercising state authority and carrying out official duties in these” municipalities.

The prosecution says the accused have blocked major roads with heavy vehicles, including trucks loaded with gravel, excavors, ambulances, buses and other vehicles.

They are charged with criminal acts “Bashkim of unconstitutional activities in order to attack the constitutional order of the Republic of Kosovo” and “Pestim of the official person in carrying out official task”.

Events relate to the December 2022 tensions in northern Kosovo, when the Central Election Commission offices in northern Mitrovica were detonated on December 6th, while on December 9th former Kosovo Police member Dejan Pantic was arrested at the border checkpoint in Jarinje. Following his arrest, local Serbs erected barricades in the north, which were removed on December 29th after the security measure against Pantiqi was changed from detention to house arrest.

For the attack on CEC offices, in 2025 three people -- including former Kosovo police officer Dejan Pantic -- were sentenced to a total of 12 years in prison. /Periscope