Kostunica pardons Milosevic plot suspects

The trio had been accused of plotting to kill Milosevic

NIS, Yugoslavia (Reuters) -- Three Serb men accused of planning a revolt and plotting to kill then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic have been freed from jail.

They said they had been pardoned by new President Vojislav Kostunica.

One of the men, Milutin Pavlovic, holding a release order Kostunica's office said: "We were not expecting anything like this. Our families were not here to wait for us," said.

The Beta news agency said Kostunica had pardoned the three on a proposal from the Justice Ministry supported by Yugoslav army chief-of-staff Nebojsa Pavkovic.

The three men had also been accused of plotting to kill Pavkovic.

Pavlovic said wardens at the prison in the southern town of Nis had told him, Boban Gajic and Radovan Djurdjevic "to pack our bags and go."

The three were sentenced by a Serb military court last April to five years in jail for conspiring to carry out hostile activities. Three other men received less harsh sentences, and were later freed.

At a new trial at the supreme military court in November, the sentences for those released on Wednesday were cut by up to two-and-a-half years.

The six were members of a shadowy group called the Serb Liberation Army. They were arrested in December last year and charged with forming a terrorist organisation with the aim of toppling the constitutional order by force.

The group had also been accused of plotting to assassinate Milosevic and Pavkovic, but the judge made no mention of this when he read out the sentence seven months ago.

The defendants denied during the trial that they had planned to kill Milosevic and to overthrow the state, saying they only wanted to protect Serb territory in Kosovo, now under de facto international rule after last year's NATO air campaign.

Pavlovic said the former Yugoslav authorities had arrested them in order to frighten people. "They wanted to use this trial to scare the other people and to show that one cannot speak or think freely in this country."

A popular uprising two months ago forced Milosevic to accept defeat in September presidential elections won by Kostunica.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Serb court sentences Milosevic plot suspects on conspiracy charges
April 28, 2000

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

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