BOSNIAN STATE PROSECUTOR PRESENTED EVIDENCE AT TRIAL OF FOUR SERBIAN WAR CRIMINALS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (October 14,2007) - The Bosnian State Prosector has presented a series of documents to the Trial Chamber of the Bosnian State Court at the trial of four Serbian war criminals Zeljko Mejakic, Momcilo Gruban, Dusan Fustar and Dusko Knezevic as material evidence.

The Bosnian State Prosecutor has presented an order issued by the Public Security Centre from Banja Luka, which also covered Prijedor, indicating that prisoners "should be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention". Other documents have also been presented, by which the Prosecution is trying to prove allegations contained in the indictment that there was a plan for taking over the control of Prijedor municipality.

The Bosnian State Prosecutor charges Serbian war criminals Zeljko Mejakic, Momcilo Gruban, Dusan Fustar and Dusko Knezevic with having participated in rape, torture, murder and beating of Bosnian and Croatian civilians detained by the genocidal Serbian aggressor in Omarska and Keraterm concentration camps in the course of 1992,during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Indictee Fustar's defence attorney Dragan Ivetic has objected to the inclusion of the Public Security Centre's order dated August 1992, because "it does not concern the indictees and it is irrelevant".

"The Prosecution considers this document relevant, because the question of what led to the issuance of such an order is a legitimate question," the Bosnian State Prosecutor Peter Kidd has explained, The Trial Chamber has admitted the document after hearing his explanation.

The Bosnian State Prosecutor has also presented four lists containing names of 97 persons who "should be apprehended to the collection centre in Omarska" dated June and July 1992. It has also presented a list of reserve policemen of Serbian origin living in Bosnia of the Public Security Centre in Prijedor who were "engaged in Omarska and Keraterm".

The 37 pieces of material evidence presented, on 11 October, by the Bosnian State Prosecutor also include a letter signed by Serbian war criminal Simo Drljaca, dated October 1995, concerning assignment of a rank to Serbian war criminal Zeljko Mejakic.

"The letter indicates that Serbian war criminal Mejakic performed the functions of wartime police station commander in Omarska from April 1992 to July 1993," Kidd has said.

Attorney Ivetic has pointed out that the document contains "incorrect information" and that its "authenticity is questionable".

"Mejakic says that he saw this document for the first time when he was in The Hague. He also says it contains incorrect information. The authenticity of the document is questionable and I hope the Prosecution of Bosnia does not think that each document obtained from The Hague is correct," Ivetic has said.

The indictment alleges that, from 24 May to 30 August 1992, Serbian war criminal Zeljko Mejakic was commander of Omarska concentration camp, in which around 3,000 Bosnian and Croatian civilians were detained by the genocidal Serbian aggressor.

According to the indictment filed in The Hague,Serbian war criminal Simo Drljaca was a member of the Emergency Headquarters in Prijedor and Chief of the Public Security Centre in Banja Luka from 30 April to 31 December 1992. In July 1997, he was killed in the course of an arrest operation conducted by SFOR as per an order issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

The Bosnian State Prosecutor has also presented a solemn oath of police officers signed by Gruban in May 1992, Guidelines on Organisation and Activities of Serbs in Extraordinary Circumstances dated December 1991, Decision on Attachment of the illegal "Autonomous Region of Krajina", Decision on Strategic Objectives of the Serbian population living in Bosnia dated May 1992.