Herceg “Innocently Charged”

Niko Dragicevic said that, while he was a member of the HOS, he visited Dretelj twice, but he did not see indictee Herceg in that facility. “During his membership in HOS Herceg was deployed to Hardomilje as Commander of the Training Centre. As far as I can remember, he left HOS a couple of days before the death of Blaz Kraljevic, the then HOS Commander,” the witness explained. Herceg is charged, along with Ivan Zelenika, Edib Buljubasic, Ivan Medic and Marina Grubisic-Fejzic, with crimes against Serb civilians, who were detained in Dretelj, in 1992. The indictment alleges that Zelenika was former HOS officer, Herceg was Commander of Dretelj, Buljubasic was Deputy Commander of the military barracks in Dretelj, while Medic and Grubisic-Fejzic are former guards. Dragicevic said that he did not see detainees during his visits to Dretelj, but he heard that they were held in the facility. The witness said that a man known as Dida was in charge of the detainees. “Dida was in charge of taking care of the detainees. He was in charge of everything in that facility,” he said. The witness mentioned that the HOS was a legitimate army, whose main goal was to preserve a unified state of Bosnia and Herzegovina without divisions. He confirmed that there was no plan for the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the Herzegovina area. Responding to Defence teams’ questions, Dragicevic said that he did not know indictees Zelenika and Grubisic-Fejzic, but he knew that she was certainly not a member of the HOS commanding structure. New Defence attorney, Senija Poropat, was appointed to represent indictee Buljubasic, because the indictee requested the Court to release his former Defence attorney Todor Todorovic of his duties. Buljubasic requested the Trial Chamber to allow a two- or three-month break in order to enable his new Defence attorney to acquaint herself with the case. At the same time the attorney requested the Court to separate the case against Buljubasic from the others in order to avoid delays in this trial.

Trial Chamber Chairwoman Enida Hadziomerovic said that the Chamber would take a break until the middle of next month, adding that the Defence should prepare itself in the meantime. The trial is due to continue on January 14, 2014.