Peric et al: Punched in Vehicle

During the course of his testimony Resad Hadzic said that he left Mihovina village, Kalinovik municipality together with his wife and sister at the end of June 1992, while his father and mother stayed at home.
 
Hadzic said that his father, who was 61 at the time, was killed at the beginning of August 1992, while his mother was detained in the “Miladin Radojevic” school building in Kalinovik. The witness said that indictees Predrag Terzic and Aleksandar Cerovina and one more policeman participated in taking his mother into detention.
 
“My mother said that these three policemen came to her house, searched it and found a hunting gun bullet. Then they put my mother in a car. She said that Predrag Terzic punched her with his fist so hard that she fainted in the car. She said she woke up in the school building, where she was held for nearly a month,” Hadzic said, adding that his mother, who died after the war, was exchanged in August 1992.
 
Besides Terzic and Cerovina, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Milan Peric and Spasoje Doder, former members of the Public Safety Station in Kalinovik, with having participated in crimes committed against the non-Serb population in the Kalinovik area in 1992.
 
The Prosecution alleges that the indictees unlawfully arrested civilians and took them to the “Miladin Radojevic” school building and the “Barutni magacin” (“Gunpowder Depot”) detention camp, where most of them were killed.
 
During the course of cross-examination the Defence of indictee Terzic said that witness Hadzic’s statement “does not match the statements given by some other witnesses” at the trial of Ratko Bundalo, Nedjo Zeljaja and Djordjislav Askraba.
 
“Two witnesses said at that trial that they saw Zeljaja and Askraba taking Resad Hadzic’s mother away at the beginning of August 1992,” Defence attorney Aldin Lejlic said.
 
Witness Hadzic said that his mother had known indictee Terzic from before, adding that he remembered that she often described how he had punched her.
 
“I testified in defence of Nedjo Zeljaja. I faced many problems because of that. Here I am, testifying again, but only because I want to tell the truth,” Hadzic said.
 
In March this year the Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Ratko Bundalo and Nedjo Zeljaja to a total of 37 years in prison for crimes in Kalinovik and ordered a retrial in the case of Djordjislav Askraba.
 
According to the verdict, Bundalo was former Commander of the Tactical Group in Kalinovik, Zeljalja was Commander of the Police Station with the Public Safety Station in that town and Askraba was Commander of Guards in the “Barutni magacin” detention camp.
 
The next hearing is due to be held on July 5, 2011.

J.Dj.