Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told Kosovo Albanian legal professionals viewed the judicial system as no more than an arm of the Serbian executive's repressive effort. These professionals were often able to recount examples whereby organs of the executive, particularly Serbian State Security officials, had manipulated the judiciary or had disregarded judicial decisions. Such examples included consultations between the public prosecutor and judges before and during trials - a common occurrence. 15 Members of the OSCE-KVM who monitored the trial of the "Urosevac group" recorded that they had the impression that the presiding judge was biased against the accused. He ignored and rejected without any comment the majority of the defence lawyers' requests and evidence that could exonerate the indicted. The court did not summon any witnesses, including expert witnesses, although the defence 16 counsels requested this. The general trust in the fairness and impartiality of the Serbian judges was not enhanced by the temporary deployment of judges from Belgrade to Kosovo courts in order to tackle the rising case load. These judges - whose technical qualifications could not be doubted - were nevertheless considered to be hard-liners with a political task, and of questionable independence from the police and the prosecution. Pre-trial procedure Investigations Under Yugoslav law, Investigating Judges conduct investigations into criminal acts. As such, they are given the responsibility of documenting the crime, through material or testimonial evidence, including interviews of suspects. They supervise police examinations of crime scenes and therefore determine the extent and diligence of police investigations. Investigating Judges are also responsible for deciding on the appropriateness of pre-trial detention for accused individuals, as well as on possible restrictions of pre-trial detainees' contacts with lawyers and others. Ultimately, they report to the prosecutor and advise on whether charges should be laid. The OSCE-KVM monitored several examinations of crime scenes conducted by the police, under the supervision of Investigating Judges, and concluded that there was generally a lack of diligence in such examinations, which often amounted to no more than a rapid survey of the crime scenes. OSCE-KVM teams monitored crime scene investigations whenever bodies were found in Kosovo, up until 19 March 1999. In many cases, especially when it was an established fact that the police had killed the victims, no investigations were made which might have challenged the purported police version that the victims were shot in combat or police had acted in self-defence, although summary or arbitrary executions could not be excluded from the circumstances.The lack of proper investigations following the mass killings in Racak (Stimlje), Rogovo and Rakovina (Djakovica) are amply documented (see also the relevant 17 municipality entries in this report). Also, Investigating Judges regularly made a snap judgement, based on the presence of a dead Kosovo Albanian beside a road, that "another loyal Albanian citizen has been 18 murdered by terrorists". http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch10.htm (6 of 18)12/5/2003 11:52:22 AM