Reactions to Đinđić trial verdict

Reactions to Đinđić trial verdict

“The fact that all the defendants have been found guilty, and that Milorad Ulemek and Zvezdan Jovanović received maximum sentences, speaks of the gravity of the crime committed, and the magnitude of the criminal enterprise that was behind the assassination,” a statement issued by the party said.

The Democrats assigned historic importance to the verdict which would affect the entire society, since it proved the judiciary was “competent to defy pressures and adversities and try organizers and perpetrators of such an ominous crime.”

“The assassination of Serbia’s first democratic prime minister is one of the gravest crimes in our recent history, which is why the verdict sent a message that the state can fiercely confront and curb organized crime,” the statement concluded.

DS official Dragoljub Mićunović has said that the verdict in the Đinđić assassination case was just, with the maximum sentences for the accused.

“I hope the Supreme Court will uphold the verdict so that we can put an end to this tragic event that has finally seen a just epilogue,” he said.

Vand der Linden: Rule of law set in motion

Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Chairman Rene Van der Linden, who met with prime minister Vojislav Koštunica in Belgrade Wednesday, said he was satisfied with the verdict, particularly with reference to Zoran Đinđić’s family and the state, since the implementation of the rule of law was set in motion.

“I sincerely hope that if it transpires there are more people responsible for the assassination out there, they will also be brought to justice,” Van der Linden said.

LDP: First step towards revealing instigators

Liberal Democratic Party (LSP) leader and Zoran Đinđić’s close associate Čedomir Jovanović said that the Special Organized Crime Court’s verdict constituted for the first step towards revealing the genuine instigators and masterminds behid the murder.

“The end of this trial will not end the search for the truth about the March 12, 2003 assassination,” Jovanović said in a statement.

He added it was clear “it was not to date possible to expose the political background of the case, since Serbia headed by Vojislav Koštunica was ruled by the people the criminals trusted.”

“We will keep asking questions as to why Koštunica supported the Red Berets [JSO] rebellion prior to the assassination, what was promised to Legija the night he surrendered, what happened with official records of the meeting that took place between Ulemek, interior minister Dragan Jočić, BIA chief Rade Bulatović, justice minister Zoran Stojkovič and state television director Aleksandar Tijanić. We will keep asking why all these people were not called to testify,” Jovanović said.

Radicals: Organizers still nameless

Serb Radical Party (SRS) deputy president Tomislav Nikolić said that “the judiciary had to convict someone, but did not dare to insist on finding all the perpetrators.”

“The pressure on the judiciary has been such that it was obliged to make a conviction, but did not dare to pursue all the perpetrators,” Nikolić told journalists in the Serbian Parliament, adding that five or six convictions were therefore still missing.

Nikolić went on to explain that he was referring to the instigators of the crime, “the men hiding in the shadows”.

“You know very well who is suspected,” Nikolić said, stressing that some of the defendants that were sentenced today “might as well be innocent”.

“Too bad we've abolished death penalty”

Former head of the Đinđić government press office and his close friend and associate Vladimir Popović said that the verdict in was “inconclusive and political.”

“Organizers and masterminds behind the murder were not present in the courtroom today, rather strutting in the government’s building lolling back in Zoran’s chair in which they could sit only after having forcibly removed Zoran from the scene,” Popović said.

He also criticized the arrival of certain politicians in the courtroom today, saying these men have earlier failed to display keen interest in the case.

“We see today how we seem to rush into accepting the rules of the civilized world, such as the abolishment of the death penalty, even though we lag behind that same world at least half a century,” he said.

“Only a death sentence would make sense in this case and could come as fair judgment of the villains and mass murderers we’ve seen in the courtroom today,” Popović concluded.