The court panel, presided over by judge Zoran Ganić, issued an order to carry out a forensic medical examination of the health condition of the first defendant. in the case of "Jovanjica", Dear Koluvius, writes BIRN.
"Considering how long it took Colluvium does not appear at the trial, as well as taking into account his social activities, the court issues an order to carry out an expert examination of his state of health", Judge Ganić explained the decision.
It is planned that the expert examination will be performed by the Institute of Forensic Medicine. The experts will review the medical documentation submitted to the court, as well as the documentation from all the medical institutions where Koluvija was treated, in order to determine whether he is fit to attend the trial in this case.
The institute is obliged to submit the findings to the court within 30 days. The experts are warned that all the facts they come to in connection with this expert opinion are confidential, and that giving a false expert opinion is against the law.
At the end, Judge Ganić stated that the court will deliver an official order to the Institute in the coming days to conduct the expert examination.
Koluvia reportedly has heart problems
In the repeated trial before the Special Court for Organized Crime in Belgrade, the defense of the defendants was stopped earlier, but some of them refused to defend themselves until the first defendant, Predrag Koluvija, who had not appeared at the hearings several times, citing alleged heart problems, returned to the courtroom.
At the hearing held on May 8, the proceedings were therefore temporarily separated in relation to him, given that, according to the submitted documentation, he was in post-operative recovery after heart surgery. Due to his absence, at the hearing on May 27, the defendants from both joined proceedings — the workers from the Jovanjica estate, as well as members of the police, BIA and VOA — decided to postpone presenting their defenses, stating that they would do so only after Koluvija presented his defense for Jovanjica 2, which he has not done so far.
Since he did not appear at the trial even today, and the Prosecution for Organized Crime (TOK) submitted a proposal for a forensic medical examination of Koluvia's health condition on May 9 of this year, as previously reported by BIRN, the court panel passed the aforementioned order.
As TOK previously told BIRN, "the proposal for expert testimony was submitted bearing in mind the fact that the submitted (health) documentation, in the opinion of the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, was inadequate and as such could not be the basis for the defendant's justified non-attendance at the main trial."
Also, on June 6, the TOK submitted to the High Court in Belgrade a proposal to order the custody of Predrag Koluvija, but the Criminal-Extratrial Chamber concluded that the TOK's proposal to order the detention of Koluvija was premature and that before making a decision on this or some milder measure, a medical examination of the defendant's documentation must be carried out.
Let us remind you that BIRN previously wrote that Koluvija attended the concert of Jelena Tomašević on May 23. This happened between two hearings - the one held on May 8, when the court was informed of his medical condition preventing him from attending the trials, and the one held on June 18, where he failed to appear again for the same reasons. A photograph from the concert was published on social network X by the lawyer Aleksandra N. Adrić, also known as Hadži Aleksandra (@Andricjeprezime).
Source: BIRN
