Confrontation of Witnesses

As per a Prosecution request, the confrontation of Prosecution and Defence witnesses Jozo Martinovic and Tomo Mihajlovic takes places at the trial of Miroslav ‘Piko’ Pijunovic, who is charged with crimes against the Bosniak and Croat civilian population in the Teslic area.

The confrontation of the witnesses was organised, because, testifying at the last hearing, Defence witness Mihajlovic, former reserve policeman from Teslic, who was sentenced, under a second instance verdict, to four years in prison for abusing civilians in Teslic, said that he asked Jozo Martinovic to testify in his defence at his trial and that, in turn, Martinovic requested him to say that Pijunovic broke his hand.

“Jozo, do you remember that, when the process was conducted against me in Zenica, we were sitting in a café together and you asked me to say, in case a trial against Pijunovic would be conducted, that he broke your hand. I said I could not do it, because I was not present there,” Mihajlovic told the District Court in Doboj.

Martinovic said that he did not even mention that Pijunovic broke his hand.

“I did not speak to you about it. We sat together in the café for a short time, but I cannot remember having asked you to do that, because we did not speak about it at all. I do not remember what we spoke about,” Martinovic said.

The District Prosecution in Doboj charges Pijunovic with having participated in the torture, taking away, rape and unlawful detention of civilians from May to July 1992. 

The indictment alleges that Pijunovic was a member of the “Mice – Red Berets” police formation with the Republika Srpska, RS, armed forces.

Defence witness Janko Tomc said that he did not know the indictee during the war. He told the Court that he was beaten up in the apartment he used at the time in August 1995.

“Four men came to the apartment on August 8, 1995. One of them introduced himself as Zdravko Vukovic of the State Security Service. Later on I found out that Piko was among them,” Tomc said, adding that the person beat him using a small axe handle.

Tomc told the Court that he reported the incident to police in May 1998.  

“During the examination I told them that Piko’s last name was Savic, but they did not include it in the examination minutes. They only included the nickname – Piko. The Savic man is still alive. I saw him at Ilija Filipovic’s café. He offered his hand with an intention to introduce himself. I told him that I knew him very well, because he had beaten me up,” Tomc said.

The witness said that the “red berets, known as ‘Mice’” were present in Teslic during the war.

“Those were dangerous guys, who did all sorts of bad things in Teslic. None of them was from Teslic,” Tomc said.

The trial is due to continue on September 11.