Who's the victim and Who's the Accused in the Trial of Bishop Pahomije?

Press release

Belgrade, March 9, 2006

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia strongly protests against the manner in which the presiding judge has conducted the recently ended trial of Bishop of Vranje Pahomije, accused of the crimes that had been systematically regulated in developed democracies.

Judicial bodies were prolonging the trial until the point when two counts of the indictment reached the status of limitation. The Serbian Orthodox Church - in spite of the strong pressure from the public and the media - simply claimed that "no one is guilty until proven otherwise," rather than conducted an in-house review. And it was the accused Bishop whom state accepted as a member of the Kosovo negotiating team. Simultaneously, four juveniles had to take witness stands four times to recount their traumatic experience.

Moreover, the very trial was marked by the atmosphere indicating that the accused was a victim, rather than a citizen standing trial for the crimes was suspected for. On the other hand, judicial bodies totally ignored their obligation to protect interests of juvenile victims of such crimes with special care, thus ignoring relevant international conventions on juveniles' rights at the same time.