NIS, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Seven people went on trial Monday on charges of plotting to assassinate President Slobodan Milosevic and his army chief.
One army lieutenant and six civilians were indicted by military authorities in Belgrade and charged with conspiracy to assassinate Milosevic and Yugoslav army chief Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic.Lt. Boban Gajic, 26, of Belgrade, and six other defendants, all from the central town of Krusevac, were also charged with forming a "terrorist" organization under the name of the Serbian Liberation Army, or OSA, according to the Serbian-language acronym.
Gajic and four others were charged on two counts of "conspiracy against the state" and "terrorism," while the remaining two from the group were only charged on the first count.
OSA -- the acronym also means Wasp -- is the second group accused of plotting against Milosevic. Last November, police detained members of a group named Pauk, or Spider, allegedly involved in subversive activities in the former Yugoslavia and abroad.
Milosevic's officials linked Spider to the French secret service, allegations France has firmly denied.
As the trial opened Monday, the seven were brought into the military court and charges were read against them. One of the indicted, Milutin Pavlovic, 46, was the first to testify.
Pavlovic, a Serb volunteer from the wars in Croatia and Bosnia in the 1990s, said he was drafted by Gajic last June to join OSA to protect the Serb population in Kosovo. Pavlovic said his first mission with the group in Kosovo was "unsuccessful" and he returned to Serbia proper after a few days.
Pavlovic admitted to hiding explosives, a radio station, the group's seal and some photographs but said this was the first he heard of any "assassination against Milosevic or Pavkovic."
The seven were arrested in December and remained in custody pending trial at the military court in Nis, Serbia's third-largest city.
Media reports have said that the group first surfaced last October when several Belgrade newspapers received letters from OSA, printed on a sheet of paper with a modified medieval Serb coat-of-arms.
At the time, one independent daily, Glas Javnosti, carried the group's "declaration," and a list of its "holy goals," which included a fight for "Serb glory and pride, for all Serb lands . . . against traitors of the Serb seed."
Early this year, a statement attributed to OSA claimed responsibility for a traffic accident that injured Vuk Draskovic, the leader of Serbia's single largest opposition party. The defendants were not charged in that attack, which killed four of Draskovic's associates.
Draskovic blamed Milosevic's regime, however, for the accident and accused the secret service of trying to kill him. A high-ranking member of Draskovic's party was later appointed defense lawyer for the group.
The lawyer, Borivoje Borovic, claimed there was no evidence the defendants engaged in any preparations to assassinate Milosevic, Pavkovic or Draskovic, but that the seven belonged to a secret group drafted for action in "operations against Albanian insurgents in Kosovo" in 1998-99.
Authorities said the group collected arms, equipment and propaganda material for an all-out Serb uprising against Milosevic.