Macic: Blackmailing of Witness

Testifying for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Novak Mijovic, leader of the SIPA Team for Investigation of War Crimes in Herzegovina, said that, on the basis of a request by the State Prosecution, he conducted an interview with Dragan Djordjic, who told him that Zoran Djordjic was blackmailing him.

“Dragan told me that he received a call from Zoran, who blackmailed him and told him that, unless he sent him Euro 500, he would go to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and say that Dragan gave a false testimony. Zoran told him that, in case he did not send him the money, he would visit Eso and take 20,000 KM,” Mijovic said.

Testifying at this trial on April 5 this year, Zoran Djordjic said that State Prosecution witness Dragan Djordjic did not personally see the murder of Milorad Kuljanin in Celebici detention camp, near Konjic in 1992. However, in his testimony Dragan Djordjic described how indictee Eso Macic killed Kuljanin in Celebici detention camp.

Macic, former member of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is charged with crimes against Serb prisoners of war and civilians in Celebici detention camp. Among other things, he is charged with having killed a Serb civilian in June 1992 and, acting in collaboration with unknown guards, beat an elderly Serb civilian, who died due to injuries.

Witness Mijovic said that Dragan Djordjic told him that he received a message from Zoran Djordjic, but Dragan never forwarded that message to the witness.

“Dragan told me that he received a message from Zoran, saying something like: ‘I snitched on you to the SIPA’. However, although he promised to do it, Dragan has never forwarded the message to me,” Mijovic said, adding that he made an official note about all those findings.

The witness pointed out that he met Zoran Djordjic too, adding that he had been in contact with him several times, but other people informed him that Zoran “was manipulating witnesses and victims in order to gain profit”.

“A woman called me from the USA and said that Zoran Djordjic told her that we had solved her parents’ case. I was caught by surprise, because the case had not been solved. Later on some people told me that Zoran asked the woman to give him money, telling her that he had become involved in the search for her parents and that he was spending his own money for that,” Mijovic said.

When asked by the Defence if he knew whether Zoran Djordjic took money from indictee Macic in turn for testifying before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the witness said that this was not known to him.

The next hearing is due to be held on May 31, when four more State Prosecution witnesses will testify.
S.U.