Local Justice – Curtic: Framed-up Process

Dominik Ilijasevic, known as Como, who was sentenced before the Cantonal Court in Zenica to 15 years in prison for crimes committed against local population in Vares and Kiseljak municipality, including murders committed in Stupni Do village, said that Ermin Curtic did not commit the crimes charged upon him.

“Curtic was on the frontline at Grede locality on the day when the crime was committed. Mijo Miocevic, who was in the same trench with him, confirmed this to me. Vjeko Grabovac was my guide on that day. He can confirm this,” Ilijasevic said.

Ermin Curtic is charged, as member of “Maturice” Special Purposes Unit with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, with having been in Stupni Do village, Vares municipality, as Dominik ‘Como’ Ilijasevic’s guide, on October 23, 1993, when Bosniak civilians were killed and burnt in that village.

Ilijasevic said that the trial against Curtic was a frame-up, adding he had got material evidence supporting his allegations. He said he had presented the evidence to the Court and handed them over to Curtic’s Defence attorney.

“Curtic’s name first appeared in the context of Stupni Do events in April 1996, when he was arrested by military policemen and handed over to the Investigation and Documentation Agency, AID, members, who instructed him who to accuse of the crimes. They wrote a statement in his behalf, telling him to learn it by heart, and took him to Stupni Do, where he showed them the places where, as they said, the civilians had been killed. The recording shown at my trial shows that he mixed up the victims,” Ilijasevic said.

Also, Ilijasevic said that Curtic’s statement given to the Hague Tribunal investigators, who examined him as a suspect, was framed-up, adding he made this conclusion on the basis of a recording made during the course of the examination.

“I saw Curtic for the first time when they brought him as Prosecution witness to testify against me at the trial held before the Zenica Court. On the video recordings of his testimony, which were shown at the trial, one can hear him say that AID members had beaten him and told him what he should say at the trial,” Ilijasevic said.

The trial is due to continue on January 18, 2011, when Miroslav ‘Firga’ Anic, whom the State Prosecution suspects of crimes against civilians and prisoners of war committed in Kiseljak and Vares area, will testify as an additional Prosecution witness.

Anic surrendered in November 2010. At a custody hearing his Defence attorney said the suspect did not deny having participated in crimes committed in Stupni Do.

A.S.