Monday, November 5, 2007

BOSNIAN STATE COURT: DEFENCE EVIDENCE PRESENTATION AT TRIAL OF CROATIAN WAR CRIMINAL ZDRAVKO MIHALJEVIC STARTED

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (November 5,2007) - The Defence team of Croatian war criminal Zdravko Mihaljevic, a former member of the Croatian aggressor's formations who is charged by the Bosnian State Court with having committed war crimes against Bosnian civilians in Kiseljak area in 1993, has invited two Prosecution witnesses for an additional examination.

Elvir Huseinovic and Asim Hasic testified both as Prosecution and Defence witnesses. They spoke of the deportation of Bosnian civilians by the Croatian aggressor from the village of Tulice,during the Croatian aggression against Bosnia in the early 1990's, and the shooting of a group of Bosnian men near the local cemetery.

The indictment alleges that Croatian war criminal Mihaljevic was commander of the Croatian aggressor's "Maturice" Special Purposes Squad. The Bosnian State Prosecutor considers that he participated in the attack on Tulice village and that he opened fire at Bosnian men near the local cemetery in that village on June 12, 1993.

"They lined us up and took us in the direction of the cemetery. On our way, they ordered us to lie down two times. The order was made by a man dressed in a camouflage uniform whose face was covered with a stocking pulled over his head," Huseinovic said.

Describing the same event, Asim Hasic said that the Bosnian civilians, who were taken by the Croatian aggressor in the direction of the cemetery, were told to lie down only when they arrived there. At that moment some were called out and shot dead.

In the course of his testimony, Huseinovic explained that "a truck was waiting" for the surviving Bosnian civilians, while Hasic said that "they waited for a truck to come".

"As we were driving in the direction of the barracks in Kiseljak, a VW Golf escorted our truck. A man with a socking pulled over his head was driving it. When we stopped near Lepenica, he told Ibrahim Jahic to get off the truck and he took him away. I never saw the man with the mask again," Huseinovic said.

On the other hand, Hasic said he "did not see who took Jahic away" and that he "thinks that you it was not possible to see, from the truck, who was driving in the car behind the truck".

The indictment alleges that Ibrahim Jahic has been missing since he was taken off the truck, while other Bosnian civilians were driven to the town of Kiseljak,in central Bosnia. The Bosnian civilians were detained by the Croatian aggressor in Kiseljak, where they were forced to perform hard labour, were tortured, and many were murdered by the Croatian aggressor.

The trial of Croatian war criminal Zdravko Mihaljevic is due to continue on November 9 before the Bosnian State Court.

No comments: