Bastah: Hearing Postponed

The Defence was not able to specify the reasons, because Milorad Potparic and Refik Serdarevic, Defence attorneys of Bastah, who filed a request for a new trial with the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on September 30 this year, had not met with Bastah prior to this hearing.

In his motion Bastah said that he wanted the trial to be renewed on the basis of “new facts, pieces of evidence and information, which could not be presented during the trial”.

Prior to deciding to postpone this hearing, Davorin Jukic, Chairman of the State Court’s Trial Chamber, said that the public session had been scheduled in order to clarify the ambiguities contained in the trial renewal motion.

In his written motion, Bastah requested the Court to render a decision, allowing a new criminal proceeding to be conducted and returning his criminal case back to the investigation phase.

In April 2011 a second instance verdict was pronounced, sentencing Bastah, former reserve policeman with the Public Safety Station in Vlasenica, for participating in the murder of civilians, unlawful detention, forcible disappearances and resettlement of the population.

The Criminal Proceedings Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulates that, following the completion of a second instance trial, a new trial may be held in case it is proved that the verdict is based on a false document or statement, that the verdict was pronounced owing to a crime committed by the judge or the person who conducted the investigation and that new facts or pieces of evidence are presented.

Goran Viskovic, former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, was sentenced, under the same indictment as Bastah, to 18 years in prison for committing crimes against humanity in Vlasenica.

A.S.