Examination without Using Force

Witness Zlatko Jasarevic said that he began working at the Public Safety Station in Brcko with indictee Galib Hadzic, who was a crime inspector at the time, at the beginning of July 1992.

“As far as the attack on Bukvik in mid-September 1992 is concerned, I am claiming that members of police did not participate in it, so neither did Hadzic. However, I know that, as per an order from the Command, Hadzic and a few other inspectors helped in examining captives from that area two or three days after that,” the witness said.

Jasarevic said that he had never received reports about those examinations, but he had never heard that Hadzic mistreated captives while examining them.

Hadzic and Nijaz Hodzic are charged with having participated in the torture and inhumane treatment of Serb civilians and prisoners of war from the Bukvik area, Brcko District, during 1992 and 1993.

The Prosecution alleges that Hadzic was inspector with the Crime Police of the Public Safety Station in Brcko, while Hodzic was military policeman of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, who worked as security guard in detention camps – collection centres at that time.

Kenad Bajric, who too worked as crime inspector with the Public Safety Station in Brcko in 1992, testified in defence of Hadzic at this hearing. He said that members of that Service did not participate in conquering of Bukvik and the surrounding villages, but individual members assisted in taking statements from captives.

“I did not notice that Hadzic applied force in order to coerce a statement from the people he examined. As far as I know, he did not have the authority to issue orders to anybody,” Bajric said.

Third Defence witness Asim Kuc said that he was involved in the establishment of a fire-fighting service in Gornji Rahic at the beginning of the war and that he sometimes visited, along with Hadzic, the territories inhabited by Bosniaks and Croats after those territories had been shelled.

“I and other members of that service were involved in rescuing survivors, while Galib Hadzic documented the consequences of artillery and air strikes,” Kuc said.

Witness Kuc said that, in September 1992 he used to see Serb prisoners from the Bukvik area, but he never saw Hadzic in their vicinity. When asked by Prosecutor Radmilo Ivanovic if he noticed that Serb prisoners were locked in those premises, he said that they were not, adding that, when he came there, some of the prisoners would sit at the entrance to the hall.  
 
Witness Ramiz Djedovic testified about the capture of Vasilije Todic, who previously testified for the Prosecution of Brcko District. Djedovic said that he captured Todic in Dizdarusa village.

“I found an automatic gun, a box of ammunition and six units of ammunition for a gun in his car. He was dressed in military uniform. I and another soldier drove him to the Command and handed him over to competent officers, but I am saying responsibly that neither I nor anybody else mistreated him and physically abused him,” Djedovic said.

Witnesses Todic and Djedovic will face each other in the courtroom at one of the future hearings.

The trial is due to continue on January 14.