Supreme Court overturns Flora Brovina?s conviction

(WiPC/IFEX) – The Serbian Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of poet, paediatrician, and women’s rights activist, Flora Brovina, and has returned the case for review by the Nis District Court. She remains detained pending a decision on whether she should be granted bail. International PEN considers Brovina to be held only because of her […]

(WiPC/IFEX) – The Serbian Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of poet, paediatrician,
and women’s rights activist, Flora Brovina, and has returned the case for review by the Nis District Court. She remains detained pending a decision on whether she should be granted bail. International PEN considers Brovina to be held only because of her denunciation of abuses of human rights in Kosovo by Serb forces. Her conviction on charges of terrorism, the organisation believes, has been fabricated as a means of penalising her for her non-violent activities towards Kosovo independence. It welcomes the Supreme Court’s decision to have the case reviewed, and will continue to urge that she be freed.

On 7 June 2000, Brovina’s lawyer, Rajko Danilovic, was informed of the Supreme Court’s decision to return her case to a lower court for review. An appeal hearing had taken place on 16 May, and the lawyers had been waiting for its results. The Nis District Court now has two options to dismiss the case and order her immediate release, or to order a re-trial. This decision is likely to take some time. Some reports suggest that the Supreme Court has recommended that Brovina be freed on bail pending the review of her case.

BACKGROUND:
Brovina has been held since April 1999 on conviction of “terrorism”. International PEN believes that the charges against her are unfounded and that she is detained for her strong support for Kosovo independence and against Serb human rights abuses. It is calling for her release.

Brovina’s defence lawyers have cited a number of irregularities in her trial. These include:
– a photograph of Brovina with a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) member being used as evidence. Brovina claims that while she recalled the photograph being taken, she was not aware that the person alongside her was a KLA official;
– that a ten-page long statement admitting involvement in KLA activities had been signed by Brovina under coercion. She claims that she did not have a chance to read its contents.
– that a prosecution witness, a manager at the Pristina state hospital, had actually supported Brovina by noting that she had taken in and treated people from all ethnic groups during the bombardment of Kosovo.

Other complaints by the defence are that the court perceived any Kosovo Albanian institution’s activities as “seditious” with the objective of Kosovan secession. These included such organisations as the League of Albanian Women, of which Brovina was a senior member and whose activities the defence points out are non-partisan and solely dedicated to the promotion of women’s rights. Similarly all protests and demonstrations held in Kosovo were seen as “hostile acts” against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Brovina had been influential in a number of protests in the late 1990s against Serb human rights abuses.

Recommended Action

Appeals To

His Excellency Slobodan Milosevic
President of Yugoslavia
Savezna Skupstina
11000 Belgrade
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Fax: +381 11 636 775

For those meeting difficulties with this contact number, try:

Zivadin Jovanovic
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Fax: +381 11 367 2954

PEN also recommends that letters of protest be sent to the Serb embassies in your own countries.

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.