Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
93
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
adult voters - to be considered by the Federal
Parliament.
Ethnic Albanian Prisoners in Serbia
The Amnesty Law also applied to people suspected of
or already sentenced for crimes committed during the
1999 Kosovo conflict, with the exception of those
convicted of terrorism under Article 125 of the FRY
criminal code. By 18 March, 173 ethnic Albanian
prisoners had been released, and by the end of June,
just over 200 prisoners had been released under the
Amnesty Law.
The law did not cover those ethnic Albanian
prisoners convicted of “association for the purposes of
hostile activity in connection with terrorism” under
both Articles 125 and 136 of the FRY criminal code,
the majority of whom AI believed to have been
convicted and sentenced in unfair trials. However, on
12 January the Federal Minister of Justice, Mom
ilo
Gruba
, acknowledged that there had been
irregularities in proceedings against ethnic Albanians,
inter alia, in the definition of terrorism used. Several
cases were subsequently referred to the Supreme
Court, including that of 143 men from Djakovica
(Djakovë) sentenced to between seven and twelve
years’ imprisonment in May 2000. On 23 April, the
Supreme Court ordered their release, pending a retrial,
annulling the original verdicts on the grounds that the
previous trial had included serious violations of
criminal procedure. On 25 April, the 143 released men
travelled back to Kosovo; AI does not believe that any
further proceedings will take place.
By the end of June, following periodic releases
under the amnesty law or for other reasons, an
estimated 235 ethnic Albanian prisoners remained in
custody. AI believes that the remaining prisoners
include those convicted and sentenced in trials which
failed to meet internationally recognized standards for
fair trial, and has repeatedly called on the Serbian
Supreme Court to review the evidence against these
prisoners, and - should there be a case to answer - to
hold a fair trial within a reasonable time. Otherwise,
the organization has called for the prisoners to be
immediately released and provided with appropriate
compensation under national law.
The Mazreku Trial
On 18 April 2001 the Niš District court found Luan
Mazreku and Bekim Mazreku guilty of terrorism
under Articles 125 and 139 of the FRY Criminal Code
and sentenced them each to the maximum sentence of
20 years’ imprisonment. Cousins Luan Mazreku and
Bekim Mazreku were arrested in August 1998, and
charged with attacks - in conjunction with 18 other
members of the KLA, none of whom have been
brought to trial - on four members of the VJ at
Malisevu. They were also indicted for the massacre of
over 40 Serbian civilians - (mainly women) - who they
allegedly tortured, mutilated and then shot in Kle
ka,
near Orahovac, between 17 and 22 June 1998. Both
men were also charged with rape, including that of a
minor. On 3 April 200l, the indictment had been
amended, dropping a charge of conspiracy, and
charges relating to the abduction, torture and murder
of two alleged victims whose death certificates had
been presented in evidence, as it transpired that one of
them had committed suicide and that the other had
died of pneumonia.
According to reports from the HLC, the
proceedings which opened on 3 April 2000 - and
which were adjourned three times - failed to meet
international standards for fair trials. HLC reports that
the accused were sentenced on the basis of forced
confessions that had been extracted under torture, the
men having allegedly been beaten by the police,
subjected to electric shocks and cut with knives. Luan
Mazreku also claims that he was drugged, and alleges
that he was forced to make a statement, which he was
then required to learn and repeat in front of a camera;
Bekim Mazreku was also forced to make a statement,
but was unaware of being filmed; extracts from both
confessions were shown on RTS (Serbian Television)
- violating the defendants’ right to be presumed of
innocent. The admissibility of statements made as a
result of torture is prohibited under Article 26 of the
Serbian Constitution - and by Article 15 of the
Convention against Torture (CAT), to which the FRY
is a signatory. A request by the defence that the
unedited tapes of the men’s statements be viewed by
the court, and that they be subject to a medical
examination to establish the state of their health, was
denied.
The HLC also reported that Luan Mazreku and
Bekim Mazreku were denied access to their lawyer
during interrogation and certain other investigative
procedures, violating Article 24 of the Serbian
Constitution and Article 14 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Other violations reported by the HLC were the
exclusion of independent evidence provided by a
Finnish team of pathologists, who had attended the
site of the massacre; the lack of direct evidence to link
the two men to the massacre; and the failure of the
court to translate proceedings into Albanian until the
third hearing of the case.
K O S O V O ( K O S O V A )
General Political Background
Hans Haekkerup replaced Bernard Kouchner on 15
January as the UN Special Representative of the
Secretary-General in Kosovo (SRSG) and head of the
United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
In March 2001, UNMIK established the Working
Group on the Legal Framework of the Provisional
Self-Governing Institutions of Kosovo (Working
Group), comprised of international experts and
representatives of domestic political parties. The
Working Group, which held its first meeting on 6
March, was charged with drafting regulations to
establish a framework of self-government of Kosovo,
within the parameters of UN Security Council