Bogdanovic: Recalling a Meeting

Fatima Pehlic said that she was at her neighbour Emina’s and Bogdanovic was there as well, adding that he told her to leave the apartment some time later.

“While I was at Emina’s, this man here forced me to leave the apartment. He was dressed in a green shirt. They took Salko away for the first time that evening. Later on I saw Emina, who seemed lost. She was pale. She did not want to say anything, but I could see that she had experienced a horrible thing,” Pehlic said.

Bogdanovic is charged with having come, accompanied by five other members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, to the Zerem’s apartment in Mostar on the night of May 25 to 26, 1993, raped Emina and took her husband Salko to Heliodrom detention camp, where he was held for 30 days.

In her statement given during the course of the investigation in October 2010, Fatima Pehlic did not mention having seen Bogdanovic in the Zerem’s apartment. While testifying in the courtroom she said she remembered this later on, adding that her neighbour told her that the same man came to her apartment again.

The Defence wanted to know how the witness managed to recognise a man she had not seen for 18 years.

“I remember him. We sat there together for 20 minutes or half an hour… I saw his photographs on the Internet as well. I watched them together with my children, because we are following this trial and we read about it on the Internet,” Pehlic explained.

Witnesses Junuz Vajzovic, Jusuf Numanovic and Senad Delic told the Court they were taken from their apartments in Mostar to Heliodrom detention camp, adding that Salko Zerem was with them.

“Some armed people I didn’t know took us. I was a civilian. The other men they took were dressed in civilian clothing too,” Numanovic said.

The three witnesses said they did not know the indictee. They said that, except for having been questioned and insulted, they were not mistreated.

The trial is due to continue on March 29.

M.T.