Kosovo Albanians held in Serbia to be freed

Serbia's Supreme Court today ordered the release, pending a re-trial, of a group of Kosovo Albanians sentenced last year to long…

Serbia's Supreme Court today ordered the release, pending a re-trial, of a group of Kosovo Albanians sentenced last year to long prison terms for terrorism, the official Tanjug news agency said.

It did not specify how many were to be freed pending a new trial, but it referred to the so-called Djakovica group, which comprises 143 ethnic Albanians from that Kosovo town.

Tanjug said the group would be released on tomorrow.

Last May, a Serb court in the southern town of Nis sentenced them to jail terms ranging from seven to 13 years. The sentences totalled 1,632 years. Human rights groups at the time condemned the convictions as groundless.

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Tanjug cited a court statement as saying the case would be returned to a lower court for re-trial due to incomplete and faulty evidence at the earlier trial.