Pustivuk: Presentation of Evidence Completed

The presentation of evidence at the trial of Srpko Pustivuk, who is charged with crimes against civilians in Ilijas municipality in May 1992, has been completed with the examination of the last witnesses of the State Court’s Chamber.

The Trial Chamber invited Refik Sehic and protected witness S3 in order to identify Zoran Crnogorac in the courtroom. The Chamber examined Crnogorac on November 8 this year, when he said that he had never participated in battles on “Bioca battlefield”.
 
Sehic said that, on May 29, 1992 he saw Crnogorac among a group of people, including indictee Pustivuk, who moved in the direction of a Bosniak family house in Gornja Bioca village, Ilijas municipality, where, according to the charges, two persons were killed and three wounded.
 
“I saw him. Zoran was with them too… I watched them through the window of my house. They were about ten metres away from me. Soon after they had passed, I heard shooting,” the witness said, confirming that the same group of people went back, carrying two wounded children. Sehic said that he did not see any other soldiers passing through the village on that day.
 
Crnogorac did not testify at this hearing, but he just appeared in the courtroom so witness Sehic could identify him.
 
Srpko Pustivuk, former member of the Public Safety station in Ilijas, is charged with having participated, in collaboration with other members of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Army and police, in an attack against civilians in Gornja Bioca village on May 29, 1992.
 
The indictment alleges that two civilians were killed and three, including two minors, wounded in that attack. Besides that, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Pustivuk with having participated, during May and June 1992, in the unlawful detention of Bosniak civilians, who were then taken to detention camps and other detention centres.
 
Witness S3 testified in absence of public.  
 
The Trial Chamber introduced three documents as evidence. Among those documents was a letter from the Public Safety Centre in Eastern Sarajevo , saying that no official notes of Srpko Pustivuk from the Public Safety Station in Ilijas had been found in the archives.
 
The State Prosecution is due to present its closing statement on November 29 this year.