Djuric: We will demand Ivanovic's release pending verdict

BELGRADE - The Serbian government sees the trial of Citizens' Initiative SDP leader Oliver Ivanovic as a "political trial par excellence" and will demand from the international community that he be immediately released pending a verdict, the head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Marko Djuric said on Friday.

For months, Ivanovic has been behind bars unjustly, "in conditions no innocent man should be in," Djuric told a press conference.

Djuric said that Ivanovic - sentenced by an EULEX panel of judges in January to nine years in prison for war crimes committed in Kosovska Mitrovica in 1999 - was denied the right to a fair trial and that the proceedings were "influenced by different political structures."

"What has happened to Ivanovic can happen to any Kosovo-Metohija Serb and that is why we must be united in his defence," Djuric said....