Proving Membership in Paramilitary Formations

Prosecutor Mirza Hukeljic presented a report on the security situation in the Visegrad area made on July 13, 1992. The report mentions paramilitary formations.

“This is important for the Prosecution, because the indictee was not member of a military, but a paramilitary formation, when he committed the crime,” Hukeljic said.

The Defence said that it considered this piece of evidence irrelevant for the indictee.

Also, the Prosecutor presented an annex to a report by a United Nations, UN expert commission. As he said, the mentioned document listed some of the paramilitary formations, which were present in the Visegrad area during the war.

The Defence did not object to this piece of evidence, because it had received it just before the beginning of the hearing, so the Trial Chamber decided that the Defence should respond to it at the next hearing. 

The third piece of evidence that was presented at this hearing was an extract from the criminal registry referring to the indictee, which indicated that Markovic’s name was not mentioned in the criminal registry of the Visegrad police.

The District Prosecution of Eastern Sarajevo charges Markovic with having raped two women in Babin Potok village, Visegrad municipality, in June 1992.

The District Prosecution completed the presentation of evidence by introducing these pieces of material evidence. Unless the Defence proposes additional pieces of evidence at the next hearing, the Prosecution will begin presenting its closing statement.

The trial is due to continue on May 21.