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Former Serbian Police Chief Said To Deny Involvement In Killings
BELGRADE, March 6 (News Agencies) - Rade Markovic, the detained former head of Serbia's secret police and a close ally of Slobodan Milosevic, has denied any involvement in the deaths of four opposition members in 1999, a Belgrade court official said Tuesday.
The official denied that Markovic, who has not yet been officially charged, had opted to remain silent, which would have reduced the possibility of bringing charges against him.
"It is not true that he is defending himself by silence, he gave a four-page statement during the interrogation," Dragoslav Rakic, chief of investigations for Belgrade district court, told reporters.
"Markovic has defended himself by saying he has nothing to do with the case" he was accused of, Rakic said.
Markovic, 54, is the highest-ranking official from the former Yugoslav president's inner circle to be arrested to date.
He was detained last month in connection with the 1999 car crash that nearly killed opposition politician Vuk Draskovic, and claimed the lives of four of his associates.
Markovic is being investigated for premeditated murder along with two other suspects, also from the secret police.
According to the court, 23 witnesses have been heard so far, with 30 more to be questioned.
Rakic said he expected the investigation to last no more than one month, adding that there was a plenty of hard evidence against Markovic and the others.
"If we had no hard evidence, we would not keep those people in detention," he said.
Markovic's arrest was considered the first major attempt by the new reformist leadership in Belgrade to move in on Milosevic's allies.
It is widely believed that the investigation could lead to charges against Milosevic himself.
A Belgrade daily reported last week that the chances of Milosevic being charged had shrunk since Markovic refused to talk about his former boss's activities.
Yugoslavia has been under strong pressure to hand Milosevic over an international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which has indicted him on war crimes charges.
The Belgrade government has so far refused to hand him over, but has hinted that it could put him on trial at home.
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