Jevic et al: Defence Invites 18 Witnesses
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The Prosecution has completed its presentation of evidence with the introduction of a list of Bosniak men who were in UNPROFOR Base in Potocari. State Prosecutor Ibro Bulic said that the list was made by UNPROFOR and it contained 239 first and last names of Bosniak men.
The Defence of the four former members of the Training Centre on Mount Jahorina with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP RS, is due to begin presenting evidence on Monday, April 18.
“We shall present four groups of material evidence with the aim of denying the allegations contained in the indictment. (…) We want to prove that Srebrenica was not fully demilitarized and the indictee did not know that the men who were separated in Potocari would be killed,” said Vera Lazic, Defence attorney for indictee Dusko Jevic.
Jevic, Mendeljev Djuric, known as Mane, Goran Markovic and Nedjo Ikonic are on trial for participation in the forcible resettlement of the population from Srebrenica and the murder of more than 1,000 Bosniak men at the agricultural cooperative in Kravica.
The indictment alleges that Jevic was Commander of the Police Training Centre on Mount Jahorina, Djuric and Ikonic were company commanders and Markovic was a squad commander with that unit.
The Defence teams asked the court to invite witnesses whose statements given before the Hague Tribunal have already been admitted as Prosecution evidence. The Chamber said that it was necessary to define the questions for those witnesses, but the Defence attorneys said that the Chamber set “high standards” because it would be difficult to formulate questions in advance since they do not know what the witnesses will say in the courtroom.
Also at today’s hearing, the Defence attorneys for Markovic and Ikonic objected to the fact that the Prosecutor had not provided them with statements given by certain witnesses during the investigation. The Chamber and Prosecutor suggested that the Defence attorneys contact those witnesses directly.
“I spoke to some of the witnesses, but I do not want them to say something to me and something completely different to the Prosecutor,” said Nenad Grubez, Ikonic’s Defence attorney.
The trial is due to continue on Monday, April 18.
M.T.
