Trial for Bihac Crimes Begins

The trial of Husein Begic, former Commander of the Military Police Squad with the Fifth Corps of ABiH, Safet Kovacevic, Muhamed Anadolac, Abid Ljubijankic and Sabahudin Hafuric, former military policemen, begins with the reading of the indictment and presentation of introductory statements.

These five former members of the Fifth Corps of ABiH are charged with having beaten and mentally mistreated 31 prisoners of war, while escorting them from Cazin and Bihac to the Izacic border crossing for an exchange.

The Cantonal Prosecution announced that it would examine 31 witnesses and two court experts and present several pieces of material evidence with which it would confirm the allegations contained in the indictment.

The Defence of Begic announced that it would prove that, although the first indictee was in the bus, he was not superior to the group of military policemen, who were in charge of escorting the prisoners of war, and that he did not have the competencies to issue orders to them.

Defence attorneys of Ljubijankic and Hafuric said that they would prove during the evidence presentation process that their clients were not present in the bus in which the VRS members were abused. Meanwhile the Defence of Kovacevic and Anadolac will present their introductory statements once the Bihac Prosecution has completed the presentation of its evidence.

At this hearing the Prosecution of Una-Sana Canton began presenting evidence by playing ABiH’s video recordings depicting the Serb prisoners getting on the bus and the trip to the location for exchange.

The indictment against the five former members of ABiH was originally filed by the State Prosecution, but, as per a proposal by the Defence, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina referred the case to the Bihac Cantonal Court for further processing.

The trial is due to continue on October 17.