Do Staged Processes Still Exist?

The question that poses itself in connection with the trial for the murder of three policeman killed in Aracinovo at the beginning of this year is wether staged political processes still exist. After the appeals lodged in yet another case, the so called "Kicevo bombers" trial, the second inevitable question runs: why are the protagonists of such cases almost as a rule Albanian?

AIM Skopje, November 24, 2000

The trial for the murder of three policemen killed during a routine patrol in the night hours of November 11 of this year has turned into a farce long ago: the process itself, the investigation carried out by the Ministry of the Interior, the actions of the investigative judge, as well as the indictment on which the trial itself rests.

A few days ago, a witness - a barmen in a discotheque in Skopje - testified to the fact that on the night of the murder, at the exact time the three policemen were killed, Baskim and Ramil Asani were guests at the discotheque, thus establishing an alibi for the accused. Since the deposition was given under oath and since, according to the laws of physics, it's impossible to be at two places at the same time, it is perfectly clear that the prosecutor will have a hard time overturning the testimony, not the first to contest the ever so shaky indictment.

Speaking of the "Aracinovo case" in an interview to the weekly Denes, Slobodan Bogoevski, a former high official of the Ministry of the Interior, head of the state Security Service and foremost figure of the Intelligence Agency at the time of its establishment, said: "Gathering from the available information, anyone can deduce, while those well-informed know for certain, that innocent men are sitting on the bench for the accused and that the real murderers are at large, some in Kosovo, some in Macedonia. I hope that the instigators of this loathsome crime will be exposed in the near future and, particularly, that the background of the whole affair will be brought to light".

Just a few days earlier, the third accused Muca Bajrami testified that the murder was plotted during a secret meeting between an individual in a high position and one from the shadow, claiming that he was "being framed by two services", obviously alluding to the Prosecutor's Office as being one of them. According to the " Utrinski Dnevnik ", even the families of the victims believe that the process is being staged.

Reporting on the case in an article entitled " Is the Aracinovo murder being unraveled? ", the weekly " Zum " wrote: " It is becoming more and more apparent that apart from criminal, political motives played an important role in the murder. The question wether the policemen from Aracinovo were sacrificed is being reopened once again. The official in a high position Muca Bajrami was referring to is the Minister of Justice Xhevdet Nasufi".

The assumption that the lawsuit, "at the moment at its half-way stage, has proved to be so confusing that its outcome is doomed to be unsatisfactory" and that "whatever the ruling, it is destined to drawl out throughout higher court-instances for a considerable time, since questions outnumber the answers by far" now seems highly probable.

This week, after having been deported from Switzerland for not possessing a residence permit, Hasim Limani was arrested at the Skopje "Petrovec" airoport. Hasim is the son of Bekir Limani, the man killed in 1996. by the police during a search for hidden weapons of the Limani family household. According to the official version, Bekir was killed at the time he decided to give himself up, while walking out of the house, because it appeared he was holding a bomb in his hand. Bekir's son and the brother of the recently apprehended Hasim, Fatmir Limani, is presently serving time in Idrizovo prison on charges connected to the "Kicevo bombers' case" as the media dubbed it. The case refers to a series of bombs planted mainly in the vicinity of police stations during

1. Hasim Limani was imprisoned although, as the Utrinski vesnik wrote citing his lawyer Krsta Karakamisev, "the indictment against him was never instituted".

The Skopje newspaper Dnevnik entitled the article about Hasim Limani's (20) arrest "Link between the Bombers and Veliu Held in Custody", alluding to the connection between the case of the "Kicevo bombers" and the "Fazli Veliu" scandal, i.e. the unrealized extradition of the man considered to be the "spiritual father" of the bomb planting, a shady affair the Minister of Justice Xhevdet Nasufi has been connected with.

For a long time now, media in Albanian have been describing the "Kicevo bombers" trial as "staged". Requests for the revision of the process and amnesty for the sentenced on the part of president Boris Trajkovski have been put forward. At a recent rally in Tetovo held in support of the release of Albanians imprisoned in Serbia, for the first time since the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) partakes in the government, there was mention of Albanians being held as political prisoners in Macedonian prisons. The newspaper Vest even printed the news of Arben Xhaferi requesting the release of the "Kicevo bombers" from president Trajkovski (the information was to be officially denied soon afterwards). According to the Vest daily, "the DPA believes that the lawsuit against these people is "a classic example of a political trial, meaning that they should be set free."

The appeals and requests for the revision of the process have been filed at the court of appeal in Bitola. Referring to the statements given by the lawyers of the indicted, Dnevnik reports that the appeals were lodged because of substantial breaches of the legal proceedings and sentencing. This newspaper also cites DPA member of parliament Fadil Bajrami who stated that the case will be reviewed before competent international institutions. "I have attended to the Kicevo trial and am convinced that what we have here is a political process staged by the prior government. No proof of any terrorist activity on the part of any of these people was ever furnished. There were instances of extorted testimonies and it is highly indicative that the father of the first accused in the case, Fatmir Limani, was killed under still shady circumstances", said Bajrami.

The mentioned cases can be viewed from a another standpoint as well. Similar examples of police, investigative and judiciary practice point at - at the very least - a liaison between politics and the judiciary, the liaison having both a negative and a positive impact on the indicted and sentanced. In the case of the "Albanian para-military" which, according to the former Macedonian Minister of the Interior Ljubomir Frckovski, originated at the time "when Sali Berisha and Albania were", as the minister put it, "caught with their pants down", the majority of the accused were freed of charges by the former president Kiro Gligorov as a result of political pressure, in the same manner the whole scandal was brought to light in the first place. Or, as in the case of the mayors of Gostivar and Tetovo, when the trials politically instigated by the then ruling authorities had the same epilogue - amnesty, the first to be granted by the Coalition for Changes after its victory at the parliamentary elections in 1998. What makes these, more or less staged lawsuits interesting, is the fact that the major protagonists in all of them are Albanians.

AIM Skopje

ISO RUSI