Karajic: Information about murder

Slada Sabic, Prosecution witness at the trial of Suljo Karajic, known as Hodza, said that her “neighbours told” her that the indictee had killed her husband Mujo Pehlic in the police station in Vrnograc, Velika Kladusa municipality.

“On my way to the police station on December 7, 1994, I met Keserovic, known as Pajo, who was dressed in military uniform. He asked me which Pehlic was my husband. When I told him that my husband’s name was Mujo, he said that he had been killed by Suljo, known as Hodza, the night before. I was shocked,” Sabic said.

The State Prosecution charges Suljo “Hodza” Karajic with having taken, together with other subordinated members of the Military Police Squad on December 6, 1994, prisoner Pehlic out of the detention unit of the Police Station in Vrnograc and, after a short examination, killed him.

The indictment alleges that Karajic was member of the Fifth Corps of the Bosnian Army and, prior to being captured, victim Pehlic was member of the National Defence of the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region, ND WBAR.

Wife Slada confirmed that her husband was member of the ND WBAR and that he was captured while “he was hiding in a wheat store in the vicinity of our family house in Vrnovacka Slapnica village”.

“He was captured by some policemen on December 4, 1994. I do not know if they were members of civil or military police forces. I recognized some of them, like Fikret Odobasic, Refik Begovic, Besir Rizvic, Suljo Sahinovic,” the witness said. 

During direct examination she said she saw her dead husband’s body. 

“There was sand in his mouth and his hands. There were black holes on his body. Some old people placed him on a sponge in our house and he stayed there overnight. He was buried in the family grave the following day. No religious ceremony was organized for him, as, I suppose, they did not dare do it as he supported the autonomy,” Sabic said. 

During the course of the examination, second Prosecution witness Meho Cerimovic confirmed that he was captured on the same day as Mujo.

“The police searched the houses in Vrnovacka Slapnica, where we lived. They did not find anything in my house, so they went to Mujo Pehlic’s. When they found him in the wheat store, they took me to the police station as well. They examined Mujo, but they did not examine me. In the evening witness E told me to go to the apartment, in which the policemen stayed. Mujo stayed there,” Cerimovic recalled, but he could not say at what time this happened. 

Cerimovic claims to have stayed in the apartment for three days. During that time he heard “witness G telling witness E that Mujo Pehlic, known as Labud, had been killed.” 

The witness said he did not know who had killed Mujo, but he “heard” Senad Keserovic saying that indictee Sujo Karajic had done it.

Third Prosecution witness Sulejman Pehlic said he did not know who had killed Mujo, but he recalled “going to the mosque to collect his body” and seeing “eight wounds on his body.” 

Mehmed Pehlic, killed Mujo’s brother, was examined as the fourth Prosecution witness. He said he did not know who had killed his brother, adding that his “mother and sister-in-law said” that the indictee had done that. 

The trial is due to continue on June 19.