The trial of Veljko Belivuk and members of his criminal group, who are accused of multiple murders, kidnappings and rapes, will have to start from the beginning because the president of the court panel, Vinka Beraha Nikićević, is retiring. Yesterday, the High Council of the Judiciary made a decision that Berahi Nikićević's judicial function will end at the end of April, because that's when he will retire, KRIK writes.
Judge Beraha Nikićević has been in the organized crime department of the High Court in Belgrade since 2013, and currently one of the most famous cases in which he judges is the case against Veljko Belivuk and his group. With her retirement, this case will start all over again, states the SCREAM.
According to the law, when the judge is changed, the trial starts from the beginning, so that the new judge can refer to all the evidence presented in the courtroom. This means that the procedure will take longer. The trial of Belivuk and his group has been going on for almost two years. So far, the defendants have presented their defenses, more than 10 witnesses have been heard, and the showing of photos and other evidence from correspondence from the secret communication application "Sky" has begun.
Trial history
The beginning of Belivuk's trial was marked by problems, that is, difficulties in finding a judge to handle this case. The case was initially assigned to judge Zorana Trajković, but she appealed against this decision. She claimed that she should not have received that item, and that it was assigned to her outside of the procedure and out of order.
Since her appeal was rejected, she went on sick leave for several months. Only after that the case was given to judge Beraha Nikićević. Even then it was known that she would retire in less than two years from the start of the trial.
For now, it is not known who will replace judge Beraha Nikićević at the head of this court panel.
Judge Beraha Nikićević was one of the first judges in the Special Department for War Crimes, then the District Court in Belgrade. She transferred to that department, as she herself stated, at her own request, and her motive was the animosity that existed in the public at that time towards war crimes trials. At that time, she convicted members of the "Avengers" paramilitary unit, a police officer in the "Tuzlan Column" case, as well as four Serbian policemen for the murder of Albanian civilians in Suva Reka for war crimes.
Beraha Nikićević was a member of the judicial panel at the trial of the "Gnjilan group" and together with her colleagues, she passed a verdict in which 11 members of the Kosovo Liberation Army were convicted of war crimes against Serbs and Albanians who were not loyal to the KLA, while six of them were acquitted. The verdict was later changed by the Court of Appeal and all the defendants were acquitted. In the end, the Supreme Court of Cassation found that the judges had broken the law when passing acquittals.
