Prosecution Witnesses Give Unexpected Answers
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I would not say that they were deprived of liberty. They walked. (…) We walked with them, said witness Enzet Mesanovic, former reserve policeman in Stupari.
When asked by Prosecutor Dragan Corlija why he said the opposite during the investigation, Mesanovic said: I do not remember having said that.
According to the charges, Serbs were unlawfully detained in the educational workers buildings in Stupari in late May 1992.
Mesanovic said that he guarded Serbs, who were accommodated in the educational workers buildings in Stupari, in order to prevent other persons from coming into those premises and mistreating them.
As far as their security is concerned, we acted like a minefield, he said.
The Prosecutor read a part of witness statement from 2012, in which he said that, as per an order by indictee Safet Mujcinovic, Commander of the Police Station in Stupari, movement of Serb detainees was restricted.
Honourable Court, I do not remember having said that, the witness said.
According to the charges, Mujcinovic decided that civilians should continue to be held in detention and was responsible for taking care about the living conditions.
The witness denied the Prosecutors allegation that the detainees were hungry. He said that they could go out to a nearby cafe: Whoever had money could go. They would go there, have a beer, juice, coffee and come back.
Mujcinovic is on trial, along with Selman Busnov, Nusret Muhic, Zijad Hamzic, Hariz Habibovic, Osman Gogic, Kahro Vejzovic, Ramiz Halilovic and Nedzad Hodzic, former members of civil and military police and the Territorial Defence, for crimes committed in the Kladanj area.
Ifeta Hrnjic, who worked as prosecutor in Kladan from June 1992 to the fall of 1993, said that she investigated the way in which Serbs were detained in Stupari.
As she said, she was told by the Police Administration in Kladanj: Police are protecting those persons from domicile population and refugees from Podrinje. As she said, indictee Busnov was Chief of Police in Kladanj.
She said that she found out that there were no legal grounds for holding civilians in Stupari, so she said that during a Kladanj municipal assembly session in May 1993. I experienced many inconveniences and heard bad words being said to me by other men, she said.
The trial is due to continue on February 21.
