Basic and Sijak: Fearing His Reaction

5. June 2012.15:39
As the trial for crimes in Vares continues, a State Prosecution witness says that his sister told him, two years ago, that indictees Muhidin Basic and Mirsad Sijak raped her in Vares in 1994 and that she did not tell him before because she feared his reaction.

This post is also available in: Bosnian

Witness C said that he was a member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, when he surrendered to the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Mount Zvijezda, near Vares in 1993.

After having been examined, he was released. As he said, a few days later military policemen came to his place and took him to Sumarstvo building in Vares due to an alleged examination. The indictees were there when he arrived.

“Both Basic and Sijak, whom I had known from before, examined me in Vares,” the witness said.
As he said, his sister visited him on January 25, 1994 He saw her briefly in one of the rooms in Sumarstvo building.

“My sister brought me food and clothes. We stayed in that room for ten minutes only. A person named Saban was present too,” said witness C, who was released from the prison in Vares on March 6, 1994.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Muhidin Basic and Mirsad Sijak with having forced a Croat female to have sexual intercourse with them in the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH prison, which was located in the basement of Sumarstvo building in Vares, on January 25, 1994.

Witness C said that she told him, in 2010, that indictees Basic and Sijak, as well as two other unknown men, raped her during her visit to Sumarstvo building and that she was too afraid to tell him about it before.

“She was convinced that I would do something stupid if she told me about it,” the witness said.

The trial is due to continue on June 11.

Mirna Buljugić


This post is also available in: Bosnian