07. 02. 2004

Internacional accused of libel and hate speech

BELGRADE, February 7, 2004 – The Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) has brought a lawsuit against Belgrade daily Internacional, accusing it of hate speech and libel against Enver Petrovci, an ethnic Albanian, his wife Valbone and the director of the Law Centre, Natasa Kandic. An HLC statement said Internacional had twice falsely stated that Enver Petrovci had used connections to get a ballet dancer evicted from an apartment, which he then moved into. The paper claimed that during Petrovci’s absence from Belgrade in 1999, his home was used as a safehouse by terrorists planning to plant explosives in public places. “He fled Belgrade not because of his Albanian origin, but because criminal charges were brought against him for drug dealing,” said the paper. The HLC statement said Internacional had falsely accused Petrovci and his wife of moving into two apartments in Pristina owned by displaced Kosovo Serbs, “converted them into a duplex, while renting their own apartment to the UN mission in Kosovo.” The report also claimed Valbone Petrovci was a cousin of Hashim Thaqi, a former guerrilla leader.