First Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic said on Friday that the trial in Hungary where he is charged with causing a traffic accident with two fatalities, was postponed because a higher court asked that his diplomatic and official status be checked out.
"According to information I received from my attorney Mr Zamecsnik relating to the criminal proceedings against me before the County Court in in Kaposvar, Hungary, a Kaposvar Court judge informed us that a higher court requested that my diplomatic and official status be checked out which is why the hearing scheduled for 17 April has been postponed," Cacic said in a statement.
Cacic reiterated he would attended the trial as any other citizen and respect all court decisions.
He added that in line with his practice so far, he decided to inform the public about the latest developments.
Cacic's attorney Cedo Prodanovic told the media earlier today that Cacic's trial which was scheduled to to resume next week, had been postponed indefinitely.
Some media cited the lawyer for the woman who lost her husband and mother in the accident caused by Cacic as saying that the hearing had been postponed due to Cacic's commitments which could not be postponed.
The trial was expected to end on 17 April, when a verdict was supposed to be handed down, after two traffic experts testified at the last hearing on 25 January who challenged one another's views on whether Cacic had driven too fast and failed to adjust his driving to road conditions before causing the accident on the Nagykanisza-Budapest motorway in January 2010 in which two people sustained fatal injuries.
Asked whether he would withdraw from politics if he was given an unconditional prison sentence, Cacic said after the last hearing in January that "if the degree of my negligence, which I admit to have shown, is such that I will be given an unconditional sentence, I will leave politics".
The driver behind the Skoda Fabia vehicle which Cacic smashed into with his Chrysler on the Nagykanisza-Budapest motorway in January 2010, was Katalin Liptak. She and Zoltanne Hitter survived the crash, but Liptak's 81-year-old mother and 60-year-old husband later died of injuries they sustained in the crash.
At his initial appearance in court, Cacic said he felt responsible and expressed regret, but denied that he was driving too fast, claiming that visibility was poor.
