Appeals From Rigged Investigation
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The BiH Prosecutors Office did not file an appeal against the first-instance verdict according to which Mujcinovic was sentenced to eight years in prison and the second accused Sulejman Hrstic was acquitted. As no appeal was filed, the acquittal of Hrustic is final.
As a former member of the Fighter Company of the Army of BiH in Srebrenik, Mujcinovic was found guilty of taking part in the abuse of Serb civilians unlawfully detained on the premises of the Youth Centre in Rapatnica from the end of July until mid-August 1992.
For four years the accused Mujcinovic has been laboring under the fires of a rigged investigation whose aim was not to discover the truth, had it been so they would have brought forward the prison warden, the guards Now, we also have this unintelligible verdict, Defence Counsel Midhat Skenderovic pointed out before the Appellate Panel.
He found that the First Instance Panel should not have admitted as evidence the identification of the accused by the injured parties, Pero and Drago Djukic, as it was not performed in a legally prescribed manner.
Moreover, Skenderovic noted that two witnesses testified in trial that they could not make the photo identification of Mujcinovic at the police station in Bijeljina and that an inspector later showed them who it was.
The Defence tendered as new evidence the statement of a witness who was in Rapatnica in 1992.
He attended the trial, but at that time he could not speak about certain things. Now that he has seen what has happened he has decided to speak out,” Skenderovic explained.
Mujcinovics second Defence Counsel Rifat Konjic deemed that the words, I played drums here which the injured parties heard in Rapatnica, was what brought Mujcinovic before the court as he was a well-known drummer in Srebrenik.
The injured parties later inquired about the identity of the drummer and they learned about Mujcinovic. He is not the only one, however. Others are also mentioned in the new witness statement,” Konjic explained.
The Prosecutors Office did not submit a written response to the appeal, and Prosecutor Sanja Jukic suggested at the hearing that the first instance verdict be upheld. The accused addressed the Appellate Panel.
“I have never set foot in that prison I swear on my children that this was rigged on me. I know that this was done by the people from Srebrenik. I am ready to take polygraph testing immediately,” Mujcinovic said.
The Appellate Panel will subsequently rule on the appeal.
