31 July 2013

A EULEX pre-trial judge at the Mitrovica Basic Court, upon the request of a EULEX prosecutor, ordered one month of detention on remand for Z.V., while S.R. was released from police detention. Both defendants are facing charges of attempted murder and unlawful use of a weapon related to an incident in December 2012, and Z.V. was further charged with one count of unlawful possession of a weapon.

The court considered that there was suspicion but this did not reach the level of grounded suspicion that the defendants committed the criminal offences of co-perpetration in attempted aggravated murder of which they were suspected, taking into account the early stage of investigation. However, there is grounded suspicion Z.V. was in possession of a weapon when he was arrested on 29 July 2013.

The judge considered that there was sufficient risk of tampering with evidence by Z.V., especially given the fact that during detention he contacted third parties warning them about criminal proceedings. Furthermore, the judge established that there is a risk of flight due to an attempt to evade capture during his arrest on 29 July 2013.

The prosecution application for detention on remand for S.R. was rejected as ungrounded. The pre-trial judge did not consider that sufficient grounds of evidence tampering and re-offending were established for S.R., which would satisfy Article 187 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Kosovo - findings required for detention on remand.

The prosecution and defendants have 24 hours from service to file an appeal.