Koricanske stijene: Prosecution Completes Presentation of Evidence
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“We are not going to present any more pieces of evidence in response to the Defence’s evidence or its response,” Prosecutor Slavica Terzic said.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina considers Zoran Babic, Milorad Skrbic, Milorad Radakovic, Dusan Jankovic and Zeljko Stojnic responsible for the death of about 200 people who were killed at Koricanske stijene on Mount Vlasic in August 1992.
The indictment alleges that Dusan Jankovic was Chief of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor while the other indictees were members of the Interventions Squad with the Station.
The indictment further alleges that the men killed at Koricanske stijene had previously been separated from a convoy of civilians leaving Prijedor and travelling to Travnika on August 21, 1992. The men were then allegedly transported by two buses to the locality, where they were killed on the side of the road while standing on the edge of a chasm.
Court expert Bilic explained that the DNA test results did not represent the final identification of those persons because “a court medical expert should first prepare his findings in order for the identification to be completed”, adding that the test results presented in the courtroom contained “positive matches between DNA materials taken from the victims and their family members”.
She explained that several positive DNA reports pertained to one single person, because several samples could actually belong to one person. She said that this was the reason for having more DNA reports than the number of identified victims.
“In doing DNA analyses we prefer using teeth or hip bones as source of DNA material, but in this case we can see that several different samples taken from one person were matched,” Bilic said.
At this hearing the Defence teams made a proposal for the examination of additional witnesses and the presentation of material evidence. The Trial Chamber will render a decision at a later stage.
According to the State Court’s timetable, the trial is due to continue on October 18.
