Defense: Lukić did not command in Kosovo

Defense: Lukić did not command in Kosovo

Since most of the witnesses identified members of the Special Units of the Police (PJP) as alleged perpetrators of the worst crimes in Kosovo, Lukić’s defense counsel claimed his client had nothing to do with this formation.

A prosecution witnesses identified Obrad Stevanović as the commander of the PJP units, the defense counsel claims, and the prosecution did not prove that the chain of command led to Lukić.

He said that the local secretariats of the interior were not under Lukić’s command and neither were the Operative Sweep Groups and other special MUP units.

Lukić’s defense counsel Dragan Ivetich did not deny that there had been murders and other crimes against Kosovo Albanians, but he did say those were “private crimes committed by private persons for private reasons”.

Although he admits that some of the perpetrators were police officers, Ivetich says they committed those crimes “acting on their own behalf, without any orders or instructions they received”.

Mihajlo Bakrac, representing army general Vladimir Lazarević, spoke before Lukić’s defense counsel and also distanced himself from the crimes committed by the police.

He denied allegations that his client had been a member of the Joint Command which had under it both the VJ and the MUP.

He went on to claim that the prosecution had failed to prove that the police had been subordinated to the military from the beginning of the NATO air strikes. According to him, Lazarević should be acquitted of all counts of the indictment. The defense counsel of the other five accused made the same motion.

The defense counsel of the other two generals – Dragoljub Ojdanić and Nebojša Pavković – also claimed that during the war the police had not been subordinated to the military.

Lawyer Toma Fila, representing Nikola Šainović, admitted that his client may have had powers over the army, but not the police.

Milan Milutinović’s defense counsel did not mention the police at all in his presentation, although the MUP was an institution of the republic, and at the time relevant for the indictment, Milutinović was the president of the republic.

The prosecution will respond to the defense arguments under Rule 98 bis today.