Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told crime of "conducting hostile activities" under these particular dispositions of the Yugoslav law. Son of a Serbian mother, the accused is a medical doctor currently finishing his degree at a Pristina State University. As a general practitioner he had worked in an ambulance in Klina from 1988. He had been asked by the UCK to work for them, which he had refused. He had left his village due to the general feeling of insecurity … He never treated any persons who he could identify as wounded UCK soldiers, although once he examined a civilian who had been wounded lightly by a grenade and had been brought by a known person in UCK uniform. His medical supplies were entirely of civilian use. According to a witness in the trial, the doctor served only civilian people … during summer 1998. The accused denied he ever treated seriously wounded persons. An employment certificate issued by the ambulance [station] in Klina shows that the accused was still employed there and never quitted to join the UCK. It was never proven that the accused had joined the UCK and that he had become a "terrorist doctor". As his defence lawyer pointed out, according to Yugoslav law, it is a criminal offence for a doctor to refuse medical aid to anyone. He was found guilty of charges under Article 136 KZSRJ as the court believes that he did give medical aid to wounded UCK soldiers, yet due to his humanitarian motivation, the sentence was mitigated to seven months of imprisonment. As he had already spent more than five months in prison, he was 41 released. Differences in sentences It is often difficult to compare sentences given in criminal cases, as factual settings vary. In Kosovo, however, a certain pattern emerged whereby individuals accused in "higher profile" cases, such as the trial of the "Urosevac group", the majority of them influential in their community as political and human rights activists, would generally incur longer prison sentences than convicted individuals who were less well known. In other cases, as international attention intensified, comparable "unlawful" conduct could result in noticeably lesser sentences than in cases that had not attracted such attention. For example, in the "Pec group" trial, as noted above, the doctor was sentenced to seven months' imprisonment while, in a trial held in Prizren in August 1998, three young women student activists were sentenced to two years' imprisonment for having put together and conducted a first aid course. It is likely also that the international attention given to the Municipal Court trial in Pec of Fatima Boshnjaku (see above and the entry for Djakovica municipality), combined with the particular political and diplomatic climate in mid-February 1999, contributed to the unexpected passing of a sentence equivalent to time served, whereby she was released. http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch10.htm (13 of 18)12/5/2003 11:52:22 AM