Husband Killed Behind House

“I was standing with my two kids in front of our house when soldiers took my husband behind the house. After that I heard burst of fire and my husband saying our son’s name,” said Zarmina Mujdzic.

She told the Court that, on July 23, 1992 she and her husband saw soldiers approaching their house in Carakovo village. She told her husband to run away, but he refused.

“’No, I will not do it. I know the first two men’, my husband told me. So, we stood there with our kids, waiting for the soldiers to come. They asked: ‘Cica, what are we going to do with him?’ The man responded by telling them to take him behind the house,” Mujdzic said.

She said that her mother-in-law came running from the neighbouring house and asked the soldiers where they were taking her son to. One of them pushed her away with his rifle butt. Zarmina Mujdzic then entered the house with her children and headed towards their bedroom, because she could see the backyard from that room.

“Following the shooting, my mother-in-law approached and lifted my husband. He died in her arms,” the witness said.

Dragomir Soldat, Velemir Djuric and Zoran Babic are charged with having participated in the persecution, murders and other inhumane acts against non-Serb civilians from Prijedor municipality from late April to the end of September 1992.

Witnesses, who testified at previous hearings, said that they called the indictee, Soldat Cica.

The witness confirmed that she recognised that person while reviewing photo documentation of the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the investigation. The Defence objected to the introduction of that piece of evidence, claiming that the identification should have been performed in the courtroom.

The trial is due to continue on May 24.