Zecevic et al: Witness Changes his Statement

The Defence of Civcic invited protected witness KA-1, who testified for the State Prosecution in 2010, after Prosecutor Slavica Terzic had changed a part of the indictment, adding charges for “persecution of people by robbing them” to the existing list of charges.

KA-1 denied the part of his previous statement, in which he said that indictee Civcic, former policeman with the Interventions Squad of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor, ordered him to confiscate money and other valuable possessions from civilians in the convoy, which he did.

“I do not know whether Civcic said that to me personally, but somebody did. I know that I took a bag and put it into the tool box next to the driver’s seat,” said KA-1, who was an escort in the bus, which broke down on Mount Vlasic.

The protected witness said that he could not be sure whether he saw Civcic in the convoy moving from Prijedor to Travnik, from which more than 200 men were separated on Mount Vlasic and shot at Koricanske stijene.

According to the charges, members of the Interventions Squad with the Public Safety Station in Prijedor, confiscated money, golden jewelry and other valuable possessions from Bosniak, as well as Croat, civilians, who were traveling with the convoy.

Besides Civcic, the crime is charged upon Sasa Zecevic, Radoslav Knezevic, Branko Topola and Marinko Ljepoja. All but Topola, who was a guard in Trnopolje detention camp, were policemen with the Interventions Squad.

The protected witness said that indictee Civcic was in the Public Safety Station in Prijedor on August 21, 1992 and that he then was in Tukovi village, from which a part of the convoy departed.

The presentation of evidence was completed with the examination of this witness. The Prosecution is due to present its closing statement on Thursday, May 30, while the Defence of the indictee will begin presenting their closing statements next week.

The trial of the five indictees began in the fall of 2009.
A.J.