Local Justice – Markovic: Nickname of the accused

Semsudin Homorac, a witness for the District Prosecution in Eastern Sarajevo who testified on 16 January 2012, was summoned to court again, at the insistence of the defense, to attest to the defendant’s nickname during the war.When questioned by District Prosecutor Mirza Hukeljic, the witness responded that he did not remember the nickname of the accused. After the prosecution presented Homorac with documents from the investigation, the witness said that he probably remembered more in 2008, when he stated that Markovic’s nickname was Muflon.Hukeljic read Homarac’s statement, made to the State Agency for Investigation and Protection on December 29, 2009, aloud: “the prisoners were mostly beaten by Milan Markovic, called Muflon.”When Homarac testified in front of the District Court in East Sarajevo on 16 January 2012, he stated that he was imprisoned at an elementary school in Sokolac and also in the village of Cavarine, and that the accused beat prisoners in both places.“I knew Milan Markovic from before, because we used to go to the same school. While I was locked up in elementary school some soldiers came who would take people out. Among these soldiers was this gentleman. I remember, exactly, when Milan Markovic took Bajro Kunduk out of the room and beat him up,” said Homarac.Markovic, a former member of the VRS unit in Han-Pijesak, is charged by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Eastern Sarajevo for beatings and the physical abuse of confined civilians in the area of Sokolac between June 1992 and March 1993.During this hearing the Trial Chamber of the District Court accepted the defence’s proposal that Zarko Savic, a forensic psychologist, evaluate the mental condition of the accused.Trial Chamber Chairwoman Zenaida Husic mentioned that, at the request of the District Prosecutor, a team of psychologists had already evaluated one of the witnesses, Hasan Dugic. These forensic psychologists – Alma Bravo-Mehmedbasic and Senadin Fadilpasic – will present their findings and opinions with regards to Dugic’s health condition in the next session.The trial will resume on 23 January 2013.