Trial of Zemun gang members postponed

Retrial of Zemun gang members Milos Simovic and Sretko Kalinic has been postponed until September since Kalinic refused to enter a plea before Simovic. Kalinic also refused to present his defense but he said that he was not guilty of any crime. Trial of Zemun gang members postponed Simovic told the court that he did not have enough time to prepare his defense. He explained that he had only received a CD with case files about ten days earlier and that he did not have enough time to prepare his defense because he only had about two hours a day to work on it. He had asked the prison director to provide him a computer or give him more time to prepare his defense because two hours a day simply was not enough. The judge said that he did not understand why court orders were not being implemented and said that he would insist that Simovic gets necessary time to prepare his defense. Simovic and Kalinic were sentenced in absentia to 40 years in prison for Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic’s murder. They will now for the first time hear the indictment. They will also face their former bosses Milorad Ulemek a.k.a Legija and Zvezdan Jovanovic, who have already been sentenced, and protected witnesses Ljubisa Buha a.ka. Cume, Dejan Milenkovic a.k.a. Bagzi and Miladin Suvajdzic. “I am not sure whether they were high enough in the Zemun gang hierarchy to know that or whether they were direct participants in some events. We will probably hear many stories and many testimonies from second and third hand and it’s hard to determine how valid it is without some further investigations and probes,” weekly Vreme Editor in Chief Filip Svarm points out. 12 Zemun gang and Special Operations Unit (JSO) members were convicted of Djindjic’s murder. Ulemek and Jovanovic were sentenced to 40 years in prison, Aleksandar Simovic, Ninoslav Konstantinovic and Vladimir Milisavljevic to 35, Sretko Kalinic, Milos Simovic, Milan Jurisic a.k.a. Jure and Branislav Bezarevic to 30, Dusan Krsmanovic to 20 and Zeljko Toajaga to 15 and Sasa Pejakovic to eight years in prison. Milisavljevic, Jurisic and Konstantinovic have been on the run since 2003. The initial trial was followed by numerous pressures, intimidations, murders and obstructions. “I think that times in Serbia have changed and the passing of time allows us to work more calmly on some things, I expect that the trial of Simovic and Kalinic will be much calmer and that the participants will be exposed to much less pressure than before. Years have simply done their thing,” Svarm said. Simovic and Kalinic were hiding for seven years. Simovic was arrested on June 10, 2010 at a border crossing with Croatia after he had inflicted serious injuries to Kalinic, who was later arrested in Zagreb. Simovic has since been at Zabela Prison, while Kalinic is in the District prison in Belgrade. Sretko Kalinic

Trial of Zemun gang members postponed

Simović told the court that he did not have enough time to prepare his defense. He explained that he had only received a CD with case files about ten days earlier and that he did not have enough time to prepare his defense because he only had about two hours a day to work on it.

He had asked the prison director to provide him a computer or give him more time to prepare his defense because two hours a day simply was not enough. The judge said that he did not understand why court orders were not being implemented and said that he would insist that Simović gets necessary time to prepare his defense.

Simović and Kalinić were sentenced in absentia to 40 years in prison for Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić’s murder.

They will now for the first time hear the indictment. They will also face their former bosses Milorad Ulemek a.k.a Legija and Zvezdan Jovanović, who have already been sentenced, and protected witnesses Ljubiša Buha a.ka. Čume, Dejan Milenković a.k.a. Bagzi and Miladin Suvajdžić.

“I am not sure whether they were high enough in the Zemun gang hierarchy to know that or whether they were direct participants in some events. We will probably hear many stories and many testimonies from second and third hand and it’s hard to determine how valid it is without some further investigations and probes,” weekly Vreme Editor in Chief Filip Švarm points out.

12 Zemun gang and Special Operations Unit (JSO) members were convicted of Đinđić’s murder. Ulemek and Jovanović were sentenced to 40 years in prison, Aleksandar Simović, Ninoslav Konstantinović and Vladimir Milisavljević to 35, Sretko Kalinić, Miloš Simović, Milan Jurišić a.k.a. Jure and Branislav Bezarević to 30, Dušan Krsmanović to 20 and Željko Toajaga to 15 and Saša Pejaković to eight years in prison.

Milisavljević, Jurišić and Konstantinović have been on the run since 2003.

The initial trial was followed by numerous pressures, intimidations, murders and obstructions.

“I think that times in Serbia have changed and the passing of time allows us to work more calmly on some things, I expect that the trial of Simović and Kalinić will be much calmer and that the participants will be exposed to much less pressure than before. Years have simply done their thing,” Švarm said.

Simović and Kalinić were hiding for seven years. Simović was arrested on June 10, 2010 at a border crossing with Croatia after he had inflicted serious injuries to Kalinić, who was later arrested in Zagreb. Simović has since been at Zabela Prison, while Kalinić is in the District prison in Belgrade.