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Edin Kovacevic, former Manager of the Collection Centre in the “Rad” factory complex in Cazin, which was formed in November 1993, said that he conducted interviews with captured Serb soldiers after having received consent from the Fifth Corps, adding that indictee Mehura Selimovic was among the interrogators.
“The examinations were conducted in the Brigade’s premises, which were about 100 metres away from the collection centre. Records about the interrogators and the prisoners whom they examined were kept. It is not know to me that some people were mistreated during the course of those examinations, because they looked normal when they came back,” said Kovacevic, testifying in defence of indictees Selimovic and Adil Ruznic.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Selimovic, Ruznic and Emir Mustafic with having assisted in the detention of members of the Republika Srpska Army and police and civilians in detention centres in Bihac, Cazin and Bosanski Petrovac in the period from 1994 to 1996. According to the charges, the indictees physically mistreated prisoners while examining them.
The indictment alleges that Selimovic was a Counter-intelligence Officer and Deputy Chief of the Military Security Section with the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, Ruznic was Assistant Commander for Security and Mustafic was a military policeman.
Describing the conditions in which detainees, who were held in the collection center in Cazin, stayed, the witness said that they slept on wooden palettes on which two blankets were placed, adding that they were given two blankets to cover themselves. As he said, they were allowed to go to the toilet and bathe, and they got the same type of food as their Manager and guards.
“I visited them every day. I asked them if they had any problems. I got an impression that they trusted me,” Kovacevic said, adding that the prisoners were exchanged in March 1995.
Ljubomir Samardzija, former officer with the State Security Service, testified in defence of Selimovic at this hearing. He said that, as part of his task to gather intelligence data, he conducted interviews with prisoners, who were held in the Krajina region.
“I never treated them in a rough way. I did not get any pieces of information saying that anyone used force against them while examining them,” Samardzija said.
During the course of cross-examination witness Samardzija said that he knew that a “naked” prisoner was once “driven through Bihac”.
The trial is due to continue on July 13 this year.
