Former Milosevic allies jailed

Markovic is led to prison after Friday's court appearence

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Yugoslavia's former secret police chief and three other top security aides of former President Slobodan Milosevic have been jailed.

Radomir Markovic, the once-feared head of state security, was among three defendants sentenced on Friday to a year in jail on charges of revealing state secrets.

Markovic, Branko Crni, Nikola Curic and Milan Radonjic, who were also high-ranking state security officers, are the first top Milosevic aides to be sentenced since Milosevic was overthrown last October.

The four former top Milosevic security officials were sentenced for allowing unauthorised people to see confidential papers, the Associated Press said.

They also allegedly removed confidential data, which is considered a violation of state secrecy laws.

Markovic, Crni, and Radonjic all received 12 month prison sentences while Curcic, a close Milosevic's family friend, received 16 months.

Markovic was arrested in February on suspicion of orchestrating a 1999 motorway car crash intended to kill then opposition leader Vuk Draskovic.

Draskovic escaped with minor injuries, but four aides were killed.

It later emerged Markovic was also being investigated for revealing state secrets. Belgrade media reported on Friday that the investigation into the crash case was almost completed.

The court dropped a separate charge against Markovic for illegal possession of weapons.

Sonja Manojlovic, a presiding Belgrade district court judge, rejected the claims by the defence that the trial was "political and staged."

Markovic, born in 1946, was secret police chief from 1998 until January this year, when he was replaced on the same day as the new reformist Serbian government took office.

He had remained in his position even after Milosevic left office with the backing of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica despite calls from many reformers for him to quit immediately.

He faces being tried later on separate charges of alleged involvement with the assassinations of Milosevic's political opponents.

Manojlovic said the court's proceedings, which were held behind closed doors, had been burdened by accusations, including that it was mounting a rigged trial, but that she believed the judges had remained "immune" to all outside influence.

"Nothing has been done out of the usual procedure and outside of what is stipulated by law," Reuters quoted her as saying.

The judge said she could not give details because of the nature of the case, but added: "It is enough that a real opportunity was created for an unknown person to gain access to the content of compact discs, which you have all agreed represented state secrets."

The sentencing of the top Milosevic aides -- who are also believed to be linked to Kosovo atrocities -- came as Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said the bodies of about 800 Kosovo Albanians have been buried in mass graves throughout Serbia.

Mihajlovic claimed that the Kosovo atrocities, mostly carried out during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, were not performed by regular Yugoslav police or army units, but "individuals dressed in police and military uniforms."

"All those who carried out the crimes will be held accountable," Mihajlovic said.

Serbian police have accused Milosevic of ordering his associates to cover up all evidence of war crimes in Kosovo.

They said that Milosevic tried to hide the atrocities by ordering the bodies to be buried in Serbia proper in locations far from the province.

Milosevic was arrested April 1 on suspicion of abusing power and corruption.

Last week, the Serbian authorities handed him to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which wants to try him in connection with the alleged war crimes in Kosovo.