Defence Denies Acquaintance with Indictee

Defence attorney Dejan Bogdanovic said that Prosecution witnesses claimed to have known indictee Mladjenovic from their “school days”, but the material evidence indicated that those witnesses did not attend the same school as him.
 
“Mladjenovic attended ‘Vuk Karadzic’ elementary school in Bratunac, while the witnesses, who said that they had known him from school days, did not attend that school,” Bogdanovic said.
 
Prosecutor Predrag Tomic objected to the relevance of that piece of evidence, saying that it was not that important for the case to determine where the witnesses knew the indictee from.
 
Mladjenovic is on trial, along with Savo Zivkovic, for having committed unlawful arrests and abuse of civilians during an attack on Hranca and Glogova villages in May 1992. The indictment alleges that Mladjenovic was Commander of the Territorial Defence in Bratunac while Savo Zivkovic was member of that unit at the time.
 
Another piece of evidence that was presented at this hearing was a certificate, confirming that a mill in Bratunac was closed in 1971, which, as alleged by the Defence, was in contradiction to what the State Prosecution witnesses said.  
 
Bogdanovic said that some witnesses said that they remembered Najdan Mladjenovic from before the war when they carried wheat to the mill, where the indictee worked.
 
The trial is due to continue on August 19.