Serb Ex-Policeman Pleads Not Guilty to Kosovo War Crimes
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Caslav Jolic (standing) at Pristina Basic Court on Wednesday. Photo: BIRN.
Former police officer Caslav Jolic pleaded not guilty to war crimes in the first hearing in his trial at Pristina Basic Court on Wednesday.
“On my honour and my body, I am not guilty of anything that has been read out,” Jolic told the court after the prosecutor read the charges against him.
Jolic is accused of using methods of torture against civilians in the municipality of Istog/Istok during the Kosovo war.
The indictment says that in 1998, a person identified only by the initials Z.M. brought British and Belgian journalists to the site of a Serb military helicopter crash in the Blagac neighbourhood of the village of Gurrakoc/Durakovac in Istog/Istok.
Five people wearing Serbian police uniforms including Jolic then beat Z.M. up for 20 minutes in the presence of the journalists for bringing them to the scene. Z.M. fainted as a consequence.
In the second incident listed in the indictment, a person identified as N.F. was having coffee in a village restaurant in Gurrakoc/Durakovac when five Serbian police officers including Jolic dragged him out of the café, hitting him on the different parts of his body.
In a third incident on March 15, 1998, Jolic is accused of beating a person with the initials N.C. until several other policemen intervened and stopped him, according to the indictment.
While mistreating N.C., the prosecution claims that Jolic shouted to him: “You are not in Kosovo but in Serbia. This is Greater Serbia.”
Jolic’s arrest in June this year angered Serbia.
The Serbian government’s office for Kosovo said that he had been to Kosovo many times during the last 23 years and “had no problem at all until yesterday [June 3] when he was arrested under suspicious pretexts and circumstances”.
“He went [to Kosovo] to undertake certain administrative activities relating to probate after the death of his father, when he was suddenly arrested over the recent indictment,” it added.
