Custody for Kuljic and Ilic Requested
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Prosecutor Behaija Krnjic said that, if released to liberty, Kuljic and Ilic might influence witnesses and accomplices, adding that the investigation against about ten other people was underway for crimes in Bileca.
The State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, arrested Kuljic and Ilic, former policemen of the Public Safety Station in Bileca, on Wednesday, January 15 due to the existence of a suspicion that they committed crimes against Bosniaks and Croats in the second half of 1992.
Kuljic and Ilic are suspected of having tortured detained civilians in the police premises and students’ centre in Bileca.
Prosecutor Krnjic said that Kuljic was suspected of having participated in the murder of a prisoner in the premises of the Police Station in Bileca.
“Besides the Bosnia and Herzegovina citizenship, he also has the citizenship of Serbia. Therefore, there is a possibility that he might leave Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Krnjic said.
The Defence said that there was no grounded suspicion that the suspects committed the crime.
Kuljic’s Defence attorney Veljko Civsa objected to the custody order motion, proposing to the Court to release the suspects to liberty and order prohibiting measures. He said that Kuljic was “a severely ill home patient” and that he carried an inhalation device with him.
“He has no strength, wish or will to influence anybody,” Civsa said, adding that the fact that he had citizenship of Serbia could not be the basis for ordering him into custody. He said that many suspects and indictees, who have dual citizenship, were defending themselves while at liberty.
Milorad Rasevic, Defence attorney of Ilic, said that his client lived with his son, daughter-in-law, grandson and daughter and that they were unemployed. He explained that he provided for them from his retirement benefit and panel-beating private business. He said that Ilic believed that he performed his job as a policeman in a scrupulous manner.
“I think that not even prohibiting measures should be ordered in this case,” Rasevic said.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will render its decision at a later stage.
