21 Suspects Go on Trial in Serbian Prime Minister’s Assassination

Twenty-one defendants who are suspected gang figures or members of an elite police unit went on trial Monday on charges of assassinating Serbia’s pro-Western prime minister in a plot to return former President Slobodan Milosevic’s allies to power.

Legal experts and human rights observers have raised questions about who ordered the March 12 sniper slaying of Zoran Djindjic, how many shots were fired and how prosecutors have handled the indictment.

The indictment charges that 36 suspects formed a “criminal enterprise” that attempted to topple Djindjic’s government, although 15 of them are at large and will be tried in absentia.

Among the fugitives is the alleged mastermind of the assassination, Milorad Lukovic, who commanded the elite “Red Berets” during Milosevic’s brutal wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo in the 1990s.

Authorities say the sniper attack in front of the prime minister’s headquarters was part of a plan by Milosevic supporters to regain power. The former president was ousted by Djindjic’s pro-Western coalition in 2000 and extradited to the U.N. war crimes court in 2001 to face charges that include genocide during the Balkan wars.

Defendants in the assassination trial could face up to 40 years in jail for charges including conspiracy against the state, terrorism and first-degree murder.

The proceedings started amid maximum security in a Belgrade court surrounded by concrete walls. Suspects were handcuffed, and each was led by two policemen into a bulletproof cage.

Defense lawyers -- about 80 in all -- immediately demanded a recess, claiming that the chief prosecutor, Jovan Prijic, attempted secret negotiations last week with some of the defendants, offering them shorter prison terms in exchange for cooperation.

The three-judge panel adjourned until Tuesday to consider the request to replace the prosecutor.

Among the first defendants expected to testify was Zvezdan Jovanovic, a Red Berets commander accused of firing two bullets that killed Djindjic and seriously wounded bodyguard Milan Veruovic.