Dzeko: Suspect a US citizen

Vesna Budimir, prosecutor for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said there are grounds for remanding the suspect in custody, because the suspect Dzeko is a US citizen, and he represents a real flight risk.

“The suspect’s whole family still lives in America. Dzeko himself still has their citizenship and he is not tied to Bosnia and Herzegovina by anything. If he was tied by anything to this region, he certainly would not have left,” said Budimir, adding that the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has the knowledge that upon entering the US Dzeko gave false information about his involvement in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Defence protested against the Prosecution’s proposal, saying there are no basic conditions to remand Dzeko in custody and that the claims about him being flight risk are “irresponsible and abstract”.

“Citizenship of another country cannot be a basis for remanding someone in custody. My defendant came to Bosnia and Herzegovina after arrest willingly and consciously and he never objected to appearing before this court,” explained Edina Residevic, the defendant’s lawyer.

Dzeko, as former member of the Zulfikar Special Purposes Detachment with the headquarters of the High Command of Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is under suspicion of war crimes in the village of Trusina near Konjic on April 16, 1993.

According to the Prosecution, 18 civilians and four soldiers of the Croatian Defence Council, who previously surrendered, were killed in the attack. Several people were wounded, including two children.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina established that the suspect Dzeko, with the last known residence in Jablanica, became unavailable to the judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that he was living in the US, after which activities were launched for finding him and turning him over to the judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dzeko was arrested in April this year, and he has been in US custody since.

During the hearing, prosecutor Budimir requested from the Court, if it decides to remand him in custody, to move Dzeko from the detention unit of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because six people charged with crimes in Trusina are already being held there.

“All of the defendants, together with suspect Dzeko, made a ‘process unit’. They all took part in this crime, they were all members of the same army unit and they are all connected. I think that this kind of situation could negatively influence the whole investigation and that is why we demand that Dzeko be held in another detention,” explained Budimir.

Before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina there is an ongoing trial of six former members of the Zulfikar Special Purposes Detachment for the same crime. Charged are Mensur Memic, Dzevad Salcin, Nedzad Hodzic, Senad Hakalovic, Nihad Bojadzic and Zulfikar Alispago.

The indictment specifies that Memic, Salcin and Hodzic, as members of the Zulfikar Special Purposes Detachment, and Hakalovic, a former member of the 45th Mountain Brigade Neretvica, took part in the attack on Trusina and the murders of civilians and prisoners of war.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will make a decision on custody at a later date.D.E.