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Print VersionMontenegro sentences 12 ethnic Albanians to prison for plotting rebellion
06/08/2008
PODGORICA, Montenegro -- A court in Podgorica on Tuesday (August 5th) sentenced a group of 12 ethnic Albanians to prison on charges of plotting a rebellion. It found the 12, including four US citizens of Montenegrin origin, guilty of conspiracy. In its ruling, the court said the conspirators, plotting between 2004 and 2006, sought to create a separate, predominantly Albanian region in the eastern part of the country. Police arrested the group in September 2006 on the eve of a parliamentary vote in Montenegro, which had just declared independence from Serbia. The court convicted five other members of the same group of illegal possession of weapons and explosives. The 17 received sentences ranging from three months to six and a half years. Initially, the group faced charges of terrorism.
In other news, five former Yugoslav Army soldiers were arrested on Tuesday in Bijelo Polje on charges of committing war crimes in 1999 against Albanian civilians in the village of Kaludjerski Laz. The veterans are part of a group of eight charged with the inhumane treatment of 23 civilians. (RTCG, AP, Blic, Makfax, B92, Beta, Focus - 05/08/08)
