A Pristina Basic Court judge ordered 30-day custody for Milorad Djokovic from Vitomirica near Pec, who was arrested on suspicion of war crimes committed in 1999, Beta reported.
Djokovic’s lawyer Vasilije Arsic told Beta that the judge did not take into account the arguments of the defense against placing the suspect in custody.
„Djokovic was never an active member of the Serbian army or police. After the war he stayed on in his village Vitomirica, near Pec, where he worked as a registrar in the village of Gorazdevac. During the 2004 March pogrom the Albanians set fire to his house, but he managed to build a new house and continued to live on his land. Had he committed any crime he would not have continued to live and work in Pec all these years,” the lawyer said, stressing that his client knows nothing about the crime he is suspected of.
Djokovic was arrested on suspicion of committing war crimes against the civilian population in the Pec region of Kosovo in May 1999. “This concerns an offensive by Serbian military, police and paramilitary forces on May 7, 1999, where it is suspected that nine ethnic Albanians were killed and five other persons went missing”, the Kosovo prosecution said.
