Kosovo Accused's 40-year UN Conviction Overturned-EU Mission
Friday March 13rd, 2009 / 16h50
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AFP)--A European Union-led court in Kosovo has overturned
a 40-year jail term U.N. judges gave an ethnic Albanian for a 2001 bomb
attack on a bus that killed 11 Serbs, an E.U. mission said Friday.
"A Supreme Court panel of five judges - three EULEX and two local judges -
ordered on the afternoon of March 12 the immediate release of Florim Ejupi
from Dubrava prison," said the E.U. mission known as EULEX.
"He was acquitted of all charges and released for a lack of evidence," said
EULEX, which in December replaced the U.N. mission that had administered
Kosovo since its 1998-99 conflict.
Last year, a three-member panel of U.N. judges jailed Ejupi for 40 years
over the attack on a bus carrying Serb pilgrims from Serbia to the enclave
of Gracanica in central Kosovo for a commemoration service in February 2001.
Eleven passengers were killed and another 10 wounded in the incident, which
occurred seven kilometers inside Kosovo, near the town of Podujevo.
EULEX said in its statement Friday that the Supreme Court decision was
"taken independently and free of any political interference," without
elaborating.
It wasn't clear whether charges would be pressed against anyone else.
In Belgrade, a lawyer acting for the families of the victims said their
legal team was ready to launch an appeal after analyzing the decision.
"We are waiting to get the verdict. When we get it...we will do whatever we
can legally against such a verdict," lawyer Zivojin Jokanovic was quoted as
telling Beta news agency.
The bomb attack occurred two years after North Atlantic Treaty Organization
bombing ousted Serbian forces waging a crackdown on separatist Kosovo
Albanian guerillas and their civilian supporters.
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most
important business and market news, analysis and commentary:
http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=ng1w6r1HE0kclAhDCqibiA%3D%3D. You
can use this link on the day this article is published and the following
day.
Friday March 13rd, 2009 / 16h50
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
