Serb Ex-Policeman Accused of Threatening Doboj Detainee

19. December 2016.16:41
A witness alleged that former special forces policeman Slobodan Karagic, who is accused of murder and unlawful detentions in Doboj, threatened to throw him into a river in 1992. Prosecution witness Ibro Spahic told the state court in Sarajevo on Monday that he was threatened by Slobodan Karagic, a Serb former Red Berets special police unit commander who is charged with participating in attacks against the Croat and Bosniak population in the Doboj area from spring to autumn 1992.

Karagic is accused of committing murders, depriving people of their liberty, rape and theft.

Spahic said he was beaten up, like other local residents from the village of Bukovacke Civije, in front of a local mosque and then transported to some hangars. They were also taken to the Percina bar in Doboj several times, where they were also kept in captivity.

He recalled that the detainees did not get “a single piece of bread or a drop of water” for seven days.

He said that Karagic used to come to the detention facilities and take statements from the detainees.

“While I was detained, he went to my village. My mother addressed him, because we were relatives. She asked him to release me, as I had not done anything wrong. He responded by saying he had no relatives in our village,” Spahic said.

He said Karagic took him out of the Percins bar and told him he would “stick a Serbian flag in my ass and throw me into the river”.
Responding to questions by the defendant, Spahic said that 200 people were detained in the hangar, but he could not name those who saw or heard what he told him.

Karagic said the witness failed to mention in his previous statements that he had allegedly threatened him with a flag.

He said in one of his statements, Spahic said that he had threatened his mother with a flag instead. The witness responded by saying that his testimony in court was true.

Also on Monday, the state court said that the trial of Jovan Tintor, the former president of the Crisis Committee of the Serb Democratic Party in Vogosca, who is charged with crimes against humanity in that neighbourhood, is to begin on January 9.

Tintor is accused of murder, unlawful detention, torture, assault and compelling people to do forced labour.

He allegedly committed the crimes against a large number of Bosniaks and Croats at several locations, including detention camps, according to the prosecution.

At a status conference, prosecutor Adis Nuspahic said the prosecution planned to call 125 witnesses to testify, including 13 protected ones, and four expert witnesses, in order to prove the charges in the indictment.

Presiding judge Minka Kreho ordered the prosecution not to call some of the witnesses because many of them were due to testify about the same counts.

Marija Taušan