Bosko Lazic Acquitted of Perjury Charges

Lazic was acquitted of charges that in a “false testimony” he said he heard Zoran Zivanovic had been killing people in the Vuk Karadzic primary school in Bratunac in July 1995, and that on July 12 and 13 he had separated men in Potocari.

At the trial of Zivanovic in October 2007, Lazic claimed he did not see Zivanovic in the school or in Potocari. He said that during investigation he got scared by the investigators from the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and that out of fear he was “saying what he saw and what he did not see.”

The court concluded that the Prosecution failed to prove what was true, what Lazic was saying in the investigation or at trial.

“It was not established which statement was true. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina made a decision to acquit Zivanovic due to a lack of evidence, which does not necessarily imply that Lazic gave an untrue statement during investigation,” said judge Goran Radevic.

He added that the defendant in his closing argument said that he had given his statement during investigation under pressure and that the Court was not convinced that the defendant gave his statements to SIPA and Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2006 “consciously and willingly.”

Zoran Zivanovic, together with Zdravko Bozic and Zeljko Zaric, were found not guilty of crimes in Srebrenica by the Bosnian State court in February 2010. The same verdict sentenced Mladen Blagojevic to seven years in prison.

The passing of the verdict was not attended either by Lazic, or his lawyer Stanko Petrovic.

This was the first case of perjury before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The verdict can be appealed at the Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.