Six suspects under investigation for embassy torching

Six suspects under investigation for embassy torching

Witness hearings to begin soon, the Prosecutor's Office told Tanjug on Thursday.

In a written statement sent to Tanjug, the Prosecutor's Office said that the order to launch an investigation charges the suspects with grave crimes against general safety and abuse of office.

So far, four people have been heard as suspects, and in the coming period, the prosecutor plans to conduct hearings of the remaining two suspects, after which witness hearings will begin, the Prosecutor's Office said.

After the witness hearings, the prosecutor will decide on further proceedings in the case.

In mid-October last year, the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office received a report by an Interior Ministry working group on the torching of the embassies, which led to the investigation.

The ministry's working group was established at the initiative of Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic to conduct a probe into lapses during and after security measures for the "Kosovo is Serbia" rally on February 21, 2008, when American and German embassies in Belgrade were set on fire.

The incidents took place following a protest against Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence that was staged under the motto "Kosovo is Serbia", involving around 600,000 people from all parts of the country.

A trial of 12 suspects in the case began in April 2013 after the Prosecutor's Office had charged them with causing general danger.

According to the indictment, they turned up outside the US embassy in an organized manner at around 6.30 pm on the critical day, pelting the building with stones and flares and causing a fire that killed one of the protesters.

They previously pelted the embassies of Croatia and Germany with missiles, causing a minor fire in the latter. The trial is still underway.

A year before, by a first-instance ruling of the same court - which was later thrown out by the Court of Appeals - Milan Zivanovic was cleared of charges of taking part in the torching of the US embassy.

However, he was sentenced to one year in prison for stealing sneakers and a jacket from the ground floor of the building.