PRESEVO MAYOR SENTENCED

31 March 20

Riza Halimi, the mayor of Presevo, was yesterday given a three-month prison sentence suspended for one year for allegedly obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duty. After a two-year trial, Judge Goran Despotovic of the Presevo Municipal Court found Mayor Halimi guilty of participating in an unannounced protest in Presevo on 5 March 1998 against the mass killing in Drenica, Kosovo, and obstructing Dragan Mitic, the deputy police chief, in maintaining law and order. Mitic was in charge of dispersing and arresting the protesters.

None of the police officers who were called as witnesses against Halimi confirmed the prosecution's charge that he "caught the deputy police chief by the elbow" and thereby committed the criminal offense of obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duty. In his testimony, Dragan Mitic said he "spoke" with the Mayor, who arrived on the scene during the police intervention, and when he proceeded to supervise implementation of the order to disperse the demonstrators, Halimi "caught" him by theLaw Center considers that the judgment against the Presevo mayor is illustrative of the situation in the country: the police are untouchable and above the law.