Belgrade - Lawyers of a Serb wanted by United States for a near-fatal beating of a fellow student baulked at a plea offer by US prosecutors, describing it as "arrogance," the Vecernje Novosti daily said Wednesday. Miladin Kovacevic, 21, a student and basketball player, was offered to enter a guilty plea and receive a 12-year sentence for almost killing a Binghamton, New York student in May and running from justice since then.
"I am amazed at the level of arrogance by the prosecution and so is the Kovacevic family, that they condemn Miladin before his guilt is proven," lawyer Veselin Cerovic told the newspaper.
"As other offers, we rejected this one without consideration," he said. In his words, "it proved Miladin would not receive a fair trial in America and that he was right to have avoided facing the indictment there," he said.
Kovacevic, a hulking, 2.05 metre athlete, was released on 100,000-dollars bail reportedly posted by the Serbian consulate in June and fled home with an "emergency passport" issued to him in replacement of the original seized by US authorities.
The incident strained relations between Washington and Belgrade, which were already less than warm over the US support of Kosovo's secession from Serbia in February and a subsequent, unchecked attack of a mob on the US embassy in Belgrade.
US authorities are pressing Serbia to arrest and extradite Kovacevic, now an internationally wanted fugitive, and are threatening to withdraw earmarked aid.
Belgrade officials, however, say the Serbian constitution bars the extradition of nationals to other countries and have so far failed to offer a solution acceptable to the US. Serbia has not clarified why a defendant on bail was issued a new passport.
Meanwhile, Kovacevic started training with a basketball team in Vrbas, near his hometown Kula 100 kilometres northwest of Belgrade and has even posed to reporters.
