CNN - April 19, 2000

NIS, Yugoslavia -- The trial of 145 ethnic Albanians accused by Yugoslav authorities of participating in terrorist activities in Kosovo went into its second day on Wednesday.

The defendants were detained in the western Kosovo town of Djakovica last year when Kosovo was still under Yugoslav rule, and have been accused of forming a unit of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army last April.

Prosecutors accuse the men of being involved in three attacks on Serb forces -- on April 10, May 7 and May 9 -- that claimed the lives of an army officer, a policeman and a soldier. Six police officers were seriously wounded from those attacks.

All of the suspects have pleaded innocent. Some of the charges carry a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Because of the large number of defendants, only 30 of them were taken to court on Wednesday.

The defendants said they had been taken from their homes for identity check and then had been detained.

Defendants refused to give statements
Most of the defendants had refused to give statements to police during their detention. But the 29 who did have denied any involvement in attacks on Serb security forces.

"I hadn't been out of my house throughout the war until we were taken away," defendant Ljuta Iljir told the court on Wednesday. "I heard gunfire in Djakovica, but I don't know who fired the shots or where from."

Prosecutors say tests conducted on the defendants showed that they had shot or handled weapons. But the defendants who testified on Wednesday denied that any such tests had been performed.

Defense lawyers say that the defendants were caught up in a random sweep of Djakovica conducted by Serb security forces the day after a clash with the KLA. They say the guerrillas had already withdrawn from the town when their clients were detained.

Defense attorneys question basis of trial
Defense attorney Moica Sivert questioned the motivations for staging the trial, saying prosecutors had no legal basis to try her clients.

"It is basically impossible that almost 150 people committed that criminal act," Sivert said. "We have not seen this kind of trial since 1945 and World War II. It is very strange and I want to underline that all this has a political background."

Defense attorney Teki Bokshi, an ethnic Albanian from Djakovica, said the defendants were being used to explain Serb treatment of Kosovar Albanians.

"Lots of horrible things happened in Djakovica," Bokshi said. "There are many thousands of people missing there and several thousands were killed, most of them civilians. So the arrest of these people who have never been involved in any war actions is an attempt to justify these actions."

Prosecutors refused to give a statement to CNN.

2,000 prisoners transferred to Serbia
As Yugoslav forces withdrew from Kosovo at the end of the war last year, more than 2,000 prisoners -- mostly ethnic Albanians -- were transferred to jails in Serbia.

About 500 of them have so far been released, while an estimated 250 other have been sentenced to months or even years in jail. An estimated 1,300 remain in prison.

NATO began an air campaign against Yugoslavia in March 1999 in a bid to halt Serb repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a Yugoslav province with a majority ethnic Albanian population.

Serbian security forces withdrew from Kosovo in June 1999.

Ethnic Albanians in Djakovica say that 20 people were killed during fighting in the area during early May, of whom five were KLA guerrillas. They deny there was an attack on April 10.

They say Serb forces killed 545 Albanians during the 78 days of the NATO bombing campaign and that 1,200 are either missing or in prison.

The trial is scheduled to continue on Thursday.