Suspected sniper in dock at Serb PM murder trial

A former elite police officer accused of gunning down Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was led handcuffed into court yesterday as the trial of 36 suspects in the killing and other mafia-style crimes started in Serbia.

Ex-deputy commander Zvezdan Jovanovic, 38, of the feared Red Berets paramilitary unit, showed little emotion as he sat grim-faced next to other defendants behind bullet proof glass in a specially built and high security Belgrade trial chamber.

Authorities blame the March 12 murder of the pro-Western leader, who helped oust Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 and angered nationalists by sending him to The Hague war crimes court, on gangster bosses linked to the Milosevic-era crack police unit.

The trial started just days before a December 28 election pits Djindjic allies against resurgent hardline nationalists in a vote that could determine the fate of his pro-market reforms.

The alleged mastermind of the killing, former Red Berets chief Milorad "Legija" Lukovic, and 14 other people suspected of conspiring or taking part in an assassination that shocked the West remain at large and will be tried in absentia.

The trial was adjourned until today after lawyers for the defendants complained their legal rights had been violated, saying they had not been given access to all documents and needed more time.

In a tense courtroom confrontation, they demanded that the panel of three judges and the prosecutor be taken off the case.

"The court treats us as enemies," Biljana Kajganic, who represents a suspect still on the run, told Reuters.

Witnesses said Djindjic's mother attended the trial opening, as did a bodyguard wounded in the shooting. He has challenged the official version that one gunman fired two bullets, saying he heard three shots and believed there were two shooters.

Officials say a powerful crime gang led by Lukovic aimed to topple the government with the help of the war-hardened special police he once commanded, in a plot called "Stop The Hague". Many people in the country see the UN war crimes tribunal as anti-Serb. Milosevic is on trial in The Hague accused of genocide and other war crimes. Twenty-one suspects were arrested in a massive dragnet after Djindjic was shot with a sniper bullet outside government headquarters and would appear at the trial.