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Could minorities get a fair trail in Kosovo? |
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August 10, 2000
PRISTINA (AP) - A Serb father and his two sons acquitted in the killing an ethnic Albanian in a shootout involving American soldiers were released Wednesday, international officials said. The case had raised doubts about whether minorities could get a fair trial in Kosovo. The judicial panel, comprised of four ethnic Albanians and one French judge, ruled Tuesday there was insufficient proof to convict Mirolub "Mirko" Momcilovic, 60, and his sons, Jugoslav, 32, and Boban, 25, of slaying Afrim Gagica outside their home in July 1999. The three men were freed from the U.S Army detention center at Camp Bondsteel before dawn Wednesday, said Maj. Craig M. Snow, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo. Belgrade-based media reported Wednesday that the family had planned to leave Kosovo for Serbia directly after their release and had no intentions to returning to their previous home in the eastern Kosovo city of Gnjilane, where they had run a car mechanic shop. The decision to acquit them came one day after a U.S. soldier traveled to Kosovo to testify about American involvement in the shootout in the eastern town of Gnjilane, which is in the American-controlled sector of Kosovo. Intentional officials in the province praised the verdict as showing great progress toward the creation of an objective judicial system in the province, where ethnic animosities between Serbs and Albanians remain. Prosecutors have 15 days to appeal. The men were convicted of illegal firearms possession, but were sentenced to time served. They were also ordered to pay the costs of the trial.
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