BELGRADE - Detainees Milan Kompirovic and Slobodan Sovrlic, both Serbs from Zubin Potok in northern Kosovo-Metohija, have gone on a hunger strike with their only requirement being that they be allowed to tell the truth at the hearing in court, Zvecan-based TV Most reported on Tuesday.

Kompirovic and Sovrlic, who have been in a detention center in Kosovska Mitrovica since May this year, have been hunger striking for five days now, and they have not drank any water since Monday.

They sent a letter to EULEX judge Vidar Stensland, informing him that they had started hunger striking due to the pressures and inappropriate conduct of EULEX prosecutor Pascal Persons, TV Most reported.

Kompirovic, who is suspected of facilitating the escape of prisoners, said in a letter to judge Stensland that he had arrived to the conclusion that the prosecutor wanted him to testify against and accuse some people he did not even know.

Kompirovic stressed that he would not fulfill the prosecutor’s desire and give a false testimony.

Sovrlic, who is charged with several criminal offenses, wants the facts established and says that during the hearings, EULEX prosecutor Pascal Persoons threatened a heavy penalty upon him if he did not accuse some people that he did not even know.

Both suspects said that during the hearings, the EULEX prosecutor had called both of them criminals, which they were not.

Kompirovic and Sovrlic say that they only want to tell the truth at the hearing and warn that, if their already bad health condition gets even worse, the consequences will be borne by the prosecutor Pascal Persoons.