Local Justice Tanasic and Boroja: Witnesses Disagree
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Defence witness Bosko Misic, shift boss at the Police Station in Obilicevo, Banja Luka municipality, said that a woman he did not know came to the Police Station in September 1995 and said that someone was lying next to a fence and calling for help.
As I was the shift boss, I could not leave the Station immediately, but I went to that location a bit later. Using a search light, I looked all over the place, but I did not find anything, Misic said, adding that he found out later on that the woman, who had come to the Police Station, was Mileva Tucek.
Misic recalled that a man, one of his neighbours, came to the Station past midnight and said that he was the man who had been put into a vehicle and driven away.
The man said that his mother stayed in the house. He said that she was disabled, adding that he was afraid to go home and look for her. I told two colleagues of mine to go there with him. They searched the house and its surroundings, but they did not find anyone, Misic said.
Witness Misic said the man was tall, adding that he had no injuries on his head. However, when District Prosecutor Branko Mitrovic told him that a report showed that the man had a bruise underneath his eye, the witness said this was true.
The indictment, which was filed by the District Prosecution in Banja Luka, charges Tanasic and Boroja with having killed Nazifa Somic and attempting to kill her son Muharem.
The indictment alleges that before September 19, 1995, Tanasic and Boroja went to the Somic’s house in Obilicevo, Banja Luka and forcibly took the mother and her son out of the house.
The Banja Luka Prosecution alleges that they beat Muharem and then took him to Vrbanja, Banja Luka, where they dumped him out of the car, thinking that he was dead.
According to the charges, the attackers went back to Somic’s house, took Nazifa in an unknown direction and killed her. Her body was found in River Vrbas basin in Tijesno village, near Banja Luka in July 1996.
Second witness Mileva Tucek said that, as soon as she heard about this case, she went to the Police Station and reported it.
Misic and two other policemen, who had a search light, visited the place with me. We went around the house, but we did not find anything. We then went to my house, where they took statements from two refugees, who lived at my place, Tucek said.
Commenting on her statement, Misic said that he could not remember that Tucek reported the incident to police, adding that he certainly did not go to her place to take statements.
The trial is due to continue on June 20.G.O.———————————————————————————————–This article is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID.) The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of Balkan investigative reporting network (BIRN) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
