Selimovic et al: Witness Identifies Accused

A witness at the trial for crimes committed in Bihac, Cazin and Bosanski Petrovac said he was questioned by indictee Mehura Selimovic “at least four times”.

Prosecution witness Ranko Gojic told the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that he was questioned and physically mistreated in Cazin almost every day from October 1994 to March 1995.
 
He said “the chief security officer slapped” him when he said he was from Novi Grad and asked him to speak about “things about which I did not know anything”. Gojic identified Selimovic as the person who hit him.  
 
“I was there together with the security officer. He was uniformed. The questioning lasted for a rather long time. (…) He asked me to speak about war crimes, but I was not able to answer his questions,” Gojic said.  
 
Selimovic, Adil Ruznic and Emir Mustafic are charged with aiding in and abetting the detention of members of the Republika Srpska Army and police as well as civilians in detention centers in Bihac, Cazin and Bosanski Petrovac from February 1994 to February 1995.
 
The indictment alleges that Selimovic was counter intelligence officer, operational officer and deputy chief of the Military Safety Services Section with the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, AbiH. Ruznic was assistant commander for Security Affairs and Operational Officer with the same section, and Mustafic was a member of the military police with the Fifth ABiH Corps.
 
Gojic was captured in the vicinity of Novi Grad. He first stayed in the village of Pistaline in the Bosanska Krupa municipality and was then transferred to the Rad factory premises in Cazin.  
 
“While I was held in Pistaline they gave me both oral and written questions. In case I did not know the answers, they would take me to another room, where four or five policemen beat me up. Then they took me back and questioned me again,” Gojic said, adding that he was questioned by several people during his detention.  
 
Selimovic’s defence lawyer presented several statements to the witness who said he signed them while in detention. The statements contained the names of those who questioned him, but Selimovic was not among them.  
 
“I consider the witness was not telling the truth when he pointed to my client. The documents we have presented confirm this,” said Asim Crnalic.  
 
The second prosecution witness, Proko Pilipovic, was captured on October 26, 1994. He was held in the Grmec and the 27. juli military barracks in Bihac as well as the Zastava car repair shop in Cazin.  
 
Pilipovic said he was questioned by “the chief security officer” only once during his stay in the 27. juli barracks, adding the officer’s name was Selimovic. But he did not recognise the indictee in the courtroom. He said the questioning was “done in a correct manner”.
 
The witness said that the detainees were beaten up in the bus taking them to an exchange location on March 11, 1995.  
 
“They handcuffed and blindfolded us before taking us to the bus. Following our departure, the policemen who came from Bihac to pick us up started beating us,” Pilipovic said.
 
The trial continues on August 25.