Local Justice Trivunovic: Bullet Fired Mechanically
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Federal Prosecutor Alma Tiric requested the Court to revoke the verdict pronounced by the Livno Cantonal Court and conduct a new trial before the Supreme Court or pronounce a longer imprisonment sentence due to substantial violation of the Criminal Proceedings Code and wrongly and incompletely determined factual status.
The first instance verdict is incomprehensive. The Court determined that the indictee killed a wounded prisoner of war, but it sentenced him for the unlawful murder of enemy soldiers, instead for war crimes against prisoners of war, said Tiric, adding that she stuck to her allegations in the written appeal.
At the beginning of December last year the Cantonal Court in Livno sentenced Trivunovic to five years in prison, because in Dolac village, Glamoc municipality, he killed wounded soldier Nikola Anicic, the then member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, from Tomislavgrad, on April 11, 1992.
The Cantonal Court in Livno determined that Trivunovic, former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, shot Anicic, who was wounded, in his head from an automatic gun and that Anicic died immediately.
Goran Bradaric, Defence attorney of indictee Trivunovic, proposed to the Supreme Court to either revoke the first instance verdict or pronounce a verdict of release.
We consider that the Prosecutions allegations concerning the substantive violations of the Criminal Proceedings Code are true and that the factual status was incorrectly determined. It was a quick event and the status of a prisoner of war was not determined. There is no doubt that the other soldier wounded Anicic. Nobody confirmed that he was still alive when the second gunshot was fired, Bradaric said.
Indictee Trivunovic said that he did not feel guilty, explaining that he fired the bullet mechanically, because he got scared.
It all happened in two seconds. I got scared of the gunshot. He fell two or three metres away from me. I fired the bullet mechanically, indictee Trivunovic said.
The Supreme Court will render its decision concerning the appeals at a later stage.
In March last year the Livno Cantonal Court sentenced Trivunovic to seven years in prison for this crime, but the Supreme Court revoked the verdict in June last year, and ordered a retrial.
During the previous trial held before the Cantonal Court in Livno Trivunovic admitted guilt for this crime on March 7 last year. However, during a session of the Supreme Court of FBiH held in June last year he said that his then defence attorney had talked him into doing it, adding that he had not committed the crime intentionally.
A.S.
