NEXT WEEK: Eight War Crimes Trials
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Trials covering crimes committed in Visegrad, Kresevo, Foca, Sarajevo, Prijedor and Srebrenica will continue next week at Bosnia’s War Crimes Chamber.
Since being transferred back to BiH from the Hague war crimes tribunal’s detainment unit in Scheveningen, Mitar Rasevic and Savo Todovic are to appear once again before the State Court, with their status conference scheduled to take place on Friday, March 23.
According to the indictment, adapted in Sarajevo on the basis of prior international charges, Rasevic and Todovic are responsible for beatings, murders, forced labour and disappearances of detainees from the Foca prison. The Prosecution believes the latter “had all the characteristics of a detainment camp”.
The crimes are alleged to have taken place between 1992 and 1994, when Rasevic was guard commander and Todovic deputy warden of the correctional facility.
Momcilo Mandic’s defence team will continue presenting evidence for three days next week, from Tuesday, March 20 to Thursday, March 22.
Mandic is so far the highest official from Radovan Karadzic’s government to be brought before the Court of BiH on charges of crimes committed during the war. The Prosecution believes that, as the Srpska Republika BiH minister of justice, he was responsible for the operation of detainment camps formed in 1992 in Serb-controlled parts of Sarajevo and Foca municipalities.
Charges also allege that, at the beginning of April of 1992, he headed and took part in an attack by Serb forces on the BiH Interior Ministry’s Staff Training Centre, located in Sarajevo.
Another hearing in the trial of the Prijedor four will be held next week, on Wednesday,March 21.
Zeljko Mejakic, Momcilo Gruban, Dusan Fustar and Dusko Knezevic are charged with crimes committed during the summer of 1992 against civilians held in the Omarska and Keraterm prison camps.
According to official announcements, the hearing will be held in closed session at the request of a Prosecution witness who sought special protection measures.
The trial of 11 indictees charged with committing genocide against Bosniaks in the Kravica village on July 13, 1995, will be continued on Wednesday, March 21 and Thursday, March 22, when the Prosecution will continue presenting evidence.
The trial of Zoran and Goran Damjanovic, two brothers charged as members of the Army of Srpska Republika BiH with taking part in the 1992 beating of a group of civilians in the Bojnik suburb of Sarajevo, will also continue.
After the defence completed its evidence procedure, the Prosecution sought leave to question six additional witnesses. The request was approved by the Trial Chamber.
The Damjanovic brothers’ defence has argued that its clients have an alibi for the crimes, which the Prosecution is disputing.
