Defense Balks in Trial for Serbian Premier’s Slaying

The trial of the suspected assassins of Serbia’s prime minister descended into turmoil Wednesday when the accused triggerman refused to enter a plea and defense attorneys walked out of the courtroom.

Zvezdan Jovanovic, the former commander of an elite Serbian police unit who is charged with firing the sniper shot that killed Zoran Djindjic on March 12, said he had been framed by pro-Western authorities.

“I have been exposed to tremendous pressure by these authorities,” said Jovanovic, 38. “I have been proclaimed guilty even before the trial had started.”

Authorities initially said Jovanovic had confessed to the slaying. But his attorneys say he was pressured during the police interrogation and was not told that anything he said could be used against him in court.

“I don’t trust this court and the judiciary of this country,” said Jovanovic, whose police unit fought in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.

Wednesday’s courtroom proceedings were cut short when 40 defense lawyers representing the 36 suspects in Djindjic’s killing walked out, saying that the three-judge panel was biased.

If they do not return today, the court will have to appoint lawyers for the policemen and suspected gangsters charged in the case.

That would jeopardize the fairness of the trial, which is considered a crucial test of the independence of Serbia’s judiciary in the wake of President Slobodan Milosevic’s ouster in 2000.

Milosevic was ousted by Djindjic’s coalition and extradited to a U.N. war crimes court in The Hague to face charges stemming from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

The Djindjic trial began three days ago in a high-security courtroom in Belgrade.

A U.N. court observer said the trial had many flaws, including “the apparent meddling” of political interests in the proceedings.

“The chief judge is acting both as a judge and a prosecutor,” said Aleksandar Cvejic, legal advisor for the U.N. commissioner for human rights. “That is unacceptable.”

Jovanovic’s lawyer, Nenad Vukasovic, said authorities were using the trial to boost their chances in Serbia’s key parliamentary elections Sunday.