Local Justice Tendzeric and Stanic: Verdict Due April 9
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The District Court in Banja Luka will pronounce the verdict on Monday, April 9.
According to the charges, Tendzeric and Stanic killed Ramo Sabanagic and his wife Fehima in Gradiska on July 27, 1993. It is alleged that they broke into the house, started abusing them, slaughtered them and set the house on fire.
District Prosecutor Branko Mitrovic called on the Court to pronounce an imprisonment sentence against the indictees, saying that the Prosecution had proved all of the allegations contained in the indictment.
The indictees came to Crveni oktobar café and, after having a few drinks, the two of them and Dejan Uzor and Nenad Paspalj went to Sabanagics family house, while Radoslav Ilisevic went to his car. Some time later Uzor and Paspalj came back. The indictees returned later on. Witnesses confirmed that they had blood stains on their shirts, Mitrovic said
He said that the Defence had not proved, through the examination of its witnesses, that they had not committed the crime.
They tried to discredit Uzors testimony due to his mental state, but they failed to do it. The court expert said that he was capable of testifying, Mitrovic said.
Tendzerics Defence attorney Milutin Djordjevic said that the Prosecution had not proved the allegations and that the witnesses statements, on which the case was based, were contradictory and untrue, adding that Tendzeric should therefore be released.
All of the Prosecution witnesses gave contradictory statements. This pertains both to the statements given to police or Prosecution and statements given during the trial. Their testimonies were always different, Djordjevic said.
The Defence attorney said that, in case the Court decided to sentence Tenderzic, it should take the following into consideration as mitigating circumstances the fact that he was young when the crime was committed, that he is a family man, that his financial situation is bad, that his wife is severely ill and that he behaved correctly during the trial.
In his closing statement Tendzeric said that he was not guilty of those crimes and that Ilisevic organised the whole process against him.
While we were sitting in Crveni oktovar café that evening, he said, several times, that he would get everything as soon as he got rid of the grandfather and grandmother. He is a very bad man. He even destroyed his own brother, Tendzeric said.
Trivun Kozomara, Defence attorney of Stanic, said that the Prosecution had not proved that the indictees had committed the crime charged upon them and that they should be released.Stanic said that his relation with Paspalj was very bad, adding that his brother threw a bomb at me in a café a few years ago. In his statements Uzor said that I shot the old lady from a revolver, but that is not true. Later on he said that he could not remember if any of us were armed. The Prosecutor realised that there was no revolver, so he did not mention it in the indictment, Stanic said. G.O.
