Lazic: Video recording of testimony

On the video shown in the courtroom, the defendant said that he heard Zoran Zivanovic had killed people in the Vuk Karadzic primary school in Bratunac.

“I know that Zivanovic entered the school. There was shooting coming from the inside, individual shots from a rifle. A military policeman told me Zivanovic was killing people inside. I did not hear at the time how many people he had killed. These were the first men killed at the time,” Lazic said on the video.

The Prosecution’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina specified in the indictment that while giving his testimony to the investigators of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) in the case of war crimes in the territory of the municipality of Bratunac, Lazic said that Z.Z. had committed certain crimes, and repeated the same testimony before the State Prosecution.

However, during the trial, it was established that Lazic gave a false testimony and thus caused severe consequences for defendant Z.Z., who was later released from custody and acquitted of all charges, it says in the indictment.

Lazic said that his fellow members of the Military Police of the Bratunac Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska were on July 13, 1995, assigned with guarding Bosniaks in front of and inside the Vuk Karadzic school in Bratunac.

After the video was shown in the courtroom, prosecutor Maja Ilic-Stupar entered into evidence the video of Lazic’s interrogation as a witness in the Prosecution’s Office, as well as transcripts of Lazic’s examination.

The Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in February 2010 acquitted with a confirmed verdict Zoran Zivanovic, as well as Zdravko Bozic and Zeljko Zaric, of charges for war crimes in Srebrenica. The same verdict sentenced Mladen Blagojevic to seven years in prison. All four were indicted for crimes committed in July 1995 in the Vuk Karadzic primary school in Bratunac.

The trial is set to resume on March 26. A.S.