Trial of Students Arrested after Vidovdan Protest Adjourned, Court Dismisses Security Service Evidence

(BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

The trial of nine students arrested after last year’s Vidovdan protest in Belgrade was adjourned until Sept. 11 after the court ruled on June 15 that all evidence gathered through covert surveillance by the Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) should be excluded from the case file as unlawfully obtained.

Bosko Zuric, a lawyer representing one of the defendants, told reporters that this was the only evidence in the case and that the court’s decision to adjourn the trial was “entirely logical.” He added that the decision was, in effect, a first-instance ruling and would have to be reviewed by the Court of Appeal if the prosecution filed an appeal. Zuric said that, even if the proceedings continued, they would have to end in an acquittal because not even the excluded evidence showed that the defendants had committed the criminal offences with which they were charged.

The courtroom was packed with students and citizens who had come to support the defendants, a BETA reporter said. Upon leaving the courthouse, the students were greeted with cheers by several dozen fellow students and other supporters. The students have been charged with preparing an act against the constitutional order and security of Serbia, in connection with calling for a violent change of the constitutional order, as co-perpetrators.

After several postponements, the trial officially began on May 15.