Handzic: Guilt Admission Agreement Accepted

“The indictee’s cooperativeness, the discovery of bones of the missing, as well as the indictee’s readiness to publicly apologise and testify in all cases conducted by the Prosecution, and we know there are many of them, are the reasons for which we proposed a sentence shorter than ten years, which is the minimal potential sentence,” State Prosecutor Slavica Terzic said.

Terzic says that thanks to the information provided by the indictee, an exhumation started on Wednesday at Ivandica Kuca locality, near Bugojno, adding that it has been confirmed that human bones have been found at the locality.

The Prosecution has fulfilled the additional conditions set by the Trial Chamber, which refer to the exhumation and meeting with families of the missing persons, who, as Terzic said, mentioned that the most important thing for them was to find the bones of their family members, leaving it up to the Court to decide on the sentence.

“We have also submitted a protected witness statement in a sealed envelope. We identified the witness during the course of the negotiations phase. He gave us a detailed description of the activities undertaken in that period of the war and the way in which the bodies were taken to the Ivandica Kuca location and burnt,” Terzic said.

Under the agreement, Handzic accepted responsibility for all counts contained in the revised indictment, which charges him with having sent Croat prisoners to locations at which they had to dig trenches and failing to open investigations against military policemen who participated in the physical abuse and murder of Croats who were detained in Bugojno.

The Defence said that the news about the discovery of the remains received a very positive response, adding that, by admitting guilt, the indictee gave his contribution to revealing the truth in a more efficient manner.

“The fact that the indictee contributed to revealing the truth and admitted what he actually did is of particular importance. (…) During the war the indictee performed a function to which he did not adapt well. We have set such a wide possible sentence span in order to give the Court some space to make its judgment. We propose that the sentence closely match the minimal proposed sentence,” said Fahrija Karkin, Defence attorney of indictee Handzic.

Handzic, who was Assistant Commander for Security with the 307th Brigade of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, AR BiH, expressed his regrets and deep repentance for all of the things that had happened.

“I tried to make the situation easier for myself and the others. I now feel relieved of a burden of the past events. As a man, I can now continue my life with the sanction that will be pronounced,” Handzic said.

The trial of Handzic, Nisvet Hasal, Musajb Kukavica and Senad Dautovic for crimes committed against the Croat population began more than three years ago. The indictment alleges that Gasal was Manager of the Iskra stadium detention camp, Kukavica was Commander of the detention camp security and Dautovic was Chief of Police in Bugojno and Commander of the Joint Command.

The case against Handzic was separated from the case of the other indictees after he admitted guilt.