Tomic and Josic: Appellate Chamber Re-examines Witness Testimony

The retrial before the Appeals Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina continued with the presentation of the testimony of two prosecution witnesses, Nurija Nuhanovic and Serif Islamovic, in the case of Ljubo Tomic and Krsto Josic.

Tomic and Josic, former soldiers in the Republika Srpska Army (VRS), are charged with war crimes against Bosniak civilians in Kozluk, Zvornik Municipality, on March 26, 1992. The indictment accuses them of killing Izet and Semso Nuhanovic, as well as Muradif Ibrahimovic, in the Marhosi forest.

A first instance verdict was rendered in March 2010, in which they were acquitted of the charges, but the appellate court revoked the first instance verdict in October 2010, and ordered a retrial, which began on April 5.

Nurija Nuhanovic´s original testmony, on September 28, 2009, recounted the way he, his son Izet, his cousin Semso, and another man were hiding from the VRS in the forest when Tomic and Josic, he said, ignited a haystack and then began to shoot in his direction. 

Nuhanovic said that he ran away, while the three other men remained where they were. ˝I fled, and I thought they would flee with me, but I didn´t see them following me. Ljubo shot 3-4 bullets in their direction,˝ he said.

Nuhanovic also said in his testimony that the bones of the three men were discovered in that place in April 2003 by the property owner. The Prosecutor, the two defense attorneys, and the judges all asked Nuhanovic why he did not try to go back to check on the three men, or visit the location when he returned to Bosnia in 1997 after living as a refugee in Germany.

Serif Islamovic told the court in his original testimony on October 12, 2009, that he and the group of men encountered Nuhanovic immediately after the incident, when he emerged ˝pale with shock˝ into the southern part of the woods. Islamovic told the court that he forbade Nuhanovic from going to check on the men, because they were afraid the soldiers were still there.

The witness said that other residents stumbled upon the bodies several days later.  

“Kaldurani residents, who passed by us two or three days after the murder, told us they had recognised the bodies of Izet and Semso. They said a finger had been cut from one of them and a few fingers from another,” said Islamovic.

The witness recalled that Nuhanovic told him that ˝the Tomici guys˝ had killed the men. ˝Later on, after the war, he said they had been killed by a man called Ljubo,” Islamovic said.

The next hearing is scheduled for May 17, when the Chamber will continue reviewing witness testimony.

V.H.