Basic and Sijak: Strange Cry

Witness Sefika Karahmetovic said that in the end of August 1992, she went with her father-in law and mother-in-law to live with witness A in Careva cuprija (municipality Olovo), where her husband came occasionally as a member of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ABiH).

Karahmetovic claims that on January 24, 1994, the protected witness went to visit her brother who was taken to Vares for unknown reasons.

“On that same day, the commander of the ABiH and my son came and told us that my husband died”, said the witness.

As it is stated by Karahmetovic, the funeral was held on the same day, and after it, she was in the house with her father-in-law and mother-in-law, when the witness A came from Vares.

“When we told her that my husband died, she started to cry and cried so much that it was strange”, the witness recalled, adding that she did not say anything to her about what happened in Vares.

After 16 years, the witness claims that representatives from the Association “Women Victims of War” visited her in order to take her statement.

Answering the question of Mira Smajlovic, presiding judge of the Trial Chamber, why the women from the Association came, the witness claims that she did not know why, and that she thought it was something about the brother of protected witness A.

After that, witness A told her that she was raped on January 24, 1994, when she went to Vares.

Answering the question of Fahrija Karkin, defence attorney of second indictee Mirsad Sijak, whether she mentioned witness A to the women from the Association, Karahmetovic answered that she did not.

According to the indictment of the State Prosecution, Basic and Sijak forced a female of Croatian ethnicity into sexual intercourse on January 25, 1994, in the premises of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ABiH) prison, which was located in the basement of the “Sumarstvo” building in Vares.

Witness Rifet Alihodzic, who, together with one colleague from the Command in Careva cuprija went to Vares on January 24, 1994, claims that witness A asked them to go with them in order to visit his brother.

“When she came out near the ‘Sumarstvo’ building, where her brother was, a hundred metres down the road we met Mirsad Sijak. We spoke briefly with him, and then went to finish our job”, said the witness, adding that witness A returned with them to Careva cuprija that same afternoon, but that they did not speak.

According to Alihodzic, witness A visited him in 2009, and she told him that on the day when they went together to Vares, she was raped.

Referring to the statement which the witness gaveon April 5 last year, defence counsel Fahrija Karkin said that it is stated there that witness A asked him to testify that they went together to Vares “because of exercising of her rights”, to which the witness replied that it was a mistake.

The continuation of the trial is scheduled for March 26. M.B.