The testimony of the anonymous witness A2 in the \u201cBanjska\u201d case was heard in a session closed to the public. The request for this was made by the case prosecutor, Naim Abazi, who stated that the witness is anonymous and that his request aims to protect both the witness and the entire judicial process. The request was later approved by the presiding judge, despite objections from the defense of the accused, Blagoje Spasojevi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Monday as well, the three defendants accused of the terrorist attack in Banjska, Zve\u010dan \u2014 Blagoje Spasojevi\u0107, Vladimir Toli\u0107, and Du\u0161an Maksimovi\u0107 \u2014 were brought to court in handcuffs under high security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the beginning of today\u2019s court hearing, prosecutor Naim Abazi requested that the session be closed to the public during the testimony of witness A2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to him, keeping the session open would endanger the safety of the witness and the integrity of the trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe request that this public session be temporarily closed during the administration of the testimony of anonymous witness A2, who enjoys the status of an anonymous witness in the proceedings\u2026 in order to guarantee the physical safety of the witness and preserve the integrity of the criminal process. The content of this witness\u2019s testimony, including the circumstances and information that could be revealed in a public session, may jeopardize the safety of the witness and the judicial process and, consequently, could negatively affect the proper conduct of the trial. Therefore, in accordance with Article 289 of the Criminal Procedure Code, we consider that excluding certain individuals from the courtroom would not be sufficient to ensure the necessary protection; hence, we request that the session be fully closed to the public during his testimony,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defense attorney Lubomir Pantovi\u0107, representing the accused Blagoje Spasojevi\u0107, opposed the request, arguing that the prosecution did not provide concrete reasons for closing the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat the prosecutor claims \u2014 that an open session would negatively affect the anonymous witness and the process as a whole \u2014 I would agree with that if we had heard concrete reasons from the prosecution explaining how the presence of the public would have a negative impact, both on the witness and on the process itself. But we have not heard any specific reasons from the prosecution, so I propose that this request not be accepted,\u201d the defense stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The presiding judge, Arben Hoti, later approved the prosecution\u2019s request, deciding to close the session during the hearing of the anonymous witness A2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe prosecution\u2019s proposal is approved \u2014 the session will move to a closed session during the hearing of anonymous witness A2, based on Article 289 of the Criminal Procedure Code, for the purpose of witness protection. Therefore, I ask you to clear the courtroom,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main trial session against the three defendants in the \u201cBanjska\u201d case \u2014 Vladimir Toli\u0107, Du\u0161an Maksimovi\u0107, and Blagoje Spasojevi\u0107 \u2014 was held on April 17, 2025. In that hearing, all three defendants pleaded not guilty. The court decided to separate their criminal proceedings from the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Special Prosecutor\u2019s Office of Kosovo filed an indictment on September 11, 2024, against Milan Radoi\u010di\u0107 and 44 others for the terrorist attack of September 24, 2023, in Banjska, Zve\u010dan, during which police sergeant Afrim Bunjaku was killed, as reported by KosovaPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defendants are charged with committing terrorist acts, serious crimes against the constitutional order and security of the Republic of Kosovo, facilitating and financing terrorism, and money laundering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forty-two of the accused, including Milan Radoi\u010di\u0107 \u2014 who publicly admitted to leading the Banjska attack \u2014 remain at large.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The testimony of the anonymous witness A2 in the \u201cBanjska\u201d case was heard in a session closed to the public. The request for this was made by the case prosecutor, Naim Abazi, who stated that the witness is anonymous and that his request aims to protect both the witness and the entire judicial process. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":77539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,296],"tags":[6824,3973,6820,6822,6823,6819,6821],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77540,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77538\/revisions\/77540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}