Veselinovic: More Time for Guilt Agreement

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has postponed discussion of a guilt admission agreement between Rade Veselinovic and his Defence team on one side and the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the other, pertaining to war crimes committed in Hadzici.

A session, originally scheduled for June 19, at which the agreement was to have been considered was postponed because the Trial Chamber “needed more time” to assess the revised indictment, which was used as the basis for the agreement.

The State Prosecution charges Rade Veselinovic, as a member of the Military Police Squad with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, with having participated, from May to the end of 1992, in the capture, detention, torture, forcible disappearance and murder of non-Serbs in the Cultural, Sports and Recreational Center in Hadzici.

Prosecutor Dubravko Campara informed the Trial Chamber that the indictment had been revised after the Prosecution “gave up on two counts originally contained in the indictment”.

Veselinovic had been charged with having participated, together with other VRS members, in an attack on Musici village, in Hadzici Municipality, on May 20, 1992, when several people were killed while others were arrested and taken to the Cultural and Sports Center.

“We have given up on this count as we believe we were not able to prove it during the course of the main trial,” Campara said, adding that two more counts were more precisely defined.

The indictee’s Defence “agreed with the more precisely defined indictment”, adding that it did not have any objections because the changes were agreed during the course of guilt admission negotiations.

The trial is due to continue on June 30.