Prosic: Witness Says Defendant Took Away his Son

The witness, Rifet Velic, said that the Bosnian Serb army soldiers came to his house in the village of Otoka in northern Bosnia on July 27, 1992, a day after an attack on the area.

“They brought Nail Selman and Smail Pasic, whose hands were tied. They forced us to leave the house and tied me and my son Samir. I knew Prosic. He was my son’s friend. He worked in a cafe, so they used to meet there,” Velic said.

Velic said that Prosic slapped his son as they were walking and soon afterwards he was separated from his son.

“They took us to a collection centre, while Prosic and two other soldiers stayed with them,” the witness said. Velic was transferred to a school building, a sports hall and finally the Manjaca detention camp.

As he said, while he was in the school building, he heard that his son, Selman and Pasic, as well as another person had been killed. He identified his son, when he was exhumed from a mass grave in 1995.

The prosecution charges Predrag Prosic, former member of the 6th Sana Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, with having participated in the murder and detention of non-Serb civilians from the Sanski Most area and setting their houses on fire.

Another witness, Dzemal Vehabovic, testified that on May 26, 1992, soldiers took him and Smail Pasic, out of their house and that the two of them run away when the soldiers were not paying attention to them.

Two days later, while he was hiding at a friend’s house in the Pobrijezje village , he heard that Pasic was killed.

“Rumours said that four men were killed. I did not hear any details about who killed them or how,” Vehabovic said.

He added that, when they were taken out of the house, Pasic wore a golden chain.

“Rumours said that the chain was seen on Mr. Prosic’s, the defendant’s neck on the following day,” the witness said.

The trial is due to continue on October 19.