Saric Trial Delays Prompt Suspicions of Obstruction

After one of the judges from the Trial Chamber in the marathon case against alleged drugs baron Darko Saric was reassigned - meaning that the trial will have to start again - a Serbian journalist who has been following the case voiced suspicions of possible obstruction.

"Something catches the eye because ... the judge should be the one running the case, and he can direct it in the right direction if he notices obstruction … while on the other hand, for the second time, a judge from the trial chamber has been changed," Bojana Jovanovic, from Serbia's Crime and Corruption Reporting Network, KRIK, told BIRN.

KRIK journalists have closely followed the long case against Saric, the alleged leader of an organised criminal group suspected of smuggling tons of high quality cocaine from South America to Europe.

Saric, who had been on the run since 2010, surrendered to Serbian police after reaching an agreement with the Belgrade authorities to give himself up in March 2014.

The special prosecutor for organised crime accused then Saric of smuggling more than five tons of cocaine and of laundering at least 22 million euros.

The trial against Saric has lasted seven years already, but is not even close to a verdict, which is why Jovanovic suspects hidden reasons for the many postponements of hearings over the past year.

"Only 10 hearings were held, and they were all marked by discussions in which the lawyers sought the exemption of some evidence," she noted.

She recalled also that among the various reasons for postponing hearings were the absence of lawyers and medical issues, while one hearing was postponed because it was scheduled at the same time as another, civil case, in which Saric was suing one of the...