Defence Requests Acquittal of Luka Peric

The Defence requested Peric’s acquittal due to several reasons, while the Federal Prosecution proposed to the Court to reject the Defence’s appeal and confirm the first instance verdict pronounced by the Mostar Cantonal Court in October 2013.

“The Defence’s right to examine witness Sefik Kovacic was violated during the first instance trial. The verdict was therefore based on his statement given during the investigation,” said Defence attorney Marko Raguz.

He said that the Mostar Court wrongly determined that Kovacic was a civilian and that there was “no serious suspicion that he was a military person, when he was taken to Gabela”.

Peric, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, was found guilty of having committed crimes against the civilian population by treating detainee Kovacic in an inhumane manner in July 1993.

According to the second count, he was sentenced for crimes against prisoners of war in Gabela detention camp, where, as determined by the first instance Chamber, he treated four Bosniak detainees in an inhumane manner.

The verdict says that Peric and other members of HVO kicked those detainees and hit them with wooden batons and forced them to jump head first down from a point up to one-and-a-half metres high.

Federal Prosecutor Jasna Pecanac said that the Mostar Court did not violate the indictee’s right to defence when it decided not to allow the Defence to examine witness Kovacic, because it acted in accordance with findings by a court expert in neurology and psychiatry.

The Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina will render its decision concerning the appeal at a later stage.