Bastah et al: Birthday party as alibi

Denka Bogosavljevic, a Defence witness for Predrag Bastah, recalled “having spent the entire day with Predrag Bastah and his family at the birthday party of Predrag’s daughter” on June 2, 1992.

“The party took place in the house of Bastah’s parents in a village. We left home at about seven in the morning, because we had to prepare everything for a barbecue. We went back late in the evening. All that time we were together,” Bogosavljevic said.

Bastah is charged, among other things, with having taken Huso Kicic, a minor at the time, from his house in Vlasenica, “by dragging him by his hair”, on June 2, 1992. He then allegedly took him to the police station, where he “hit him in his chest with the butt of a gun”.

The State Prosecution charges Goran Viskovic, known as Vjetar, and Bastah with participation in “murder, mental abuse, torture and forcible disappearances” of civilians from the Vlasenica area during 1992.

Bogosavljevic told the Court that she “lived in Vlasenica” during the course of the war, adding that she “never heard anyone say any bad things about Bastah, whom I have known since before the war”.

“They took my husband, Sadik Dzindo, away on June 29. We have not heard from him since then. Some unknown people, dressed in police uniforms, took him away. Their faces were masked. They did not say anything to me. After that Bastah used to visit me very often to check if he could somehow help me,” the witness said.

The second Defence witness, Nevenka Milic, said she worked as manager of the “10 avgust” furniture factory in 1992, adding that she “never saw Bastah in the factory or heard about him having beaten anybody”.

“I remember that Alija Berbic used to work in the factory, but I did not know that he faced any awful situations or was beaten up. I was told that some witnesses had seen me allegedly crying in the factory building. Somebody was obviously mistaken,” Milic said.

A protected Prosecution witness, who testified under the pseudonym of 1 at the hearing held on September 19, 2008, claimed to have seen “Bastah arresting Alija Berbic”, who looked beaten up when he came back. 

The trial is due to continue on March 2, 2009.