Custody Extension for Maric Requested

“The indictee offered resistance during his arrest. He wanted to flee through a window. His flight was prevented thanks to a quick reaction by members of the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA,” said Prosecutor Sanja Jukic.

She pointed that Maric lived with his family in Croatia and that he knew that an investigation against him was conducted.

“In case the custody measures is not extended, he might go to the same place, where he was when the arrest warrant against him was issued,” Jukic said, adding that Maric did not have the citizenship of Croatia, but that would not prevent him from leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Prosecutor said that, if released to liberty, Maric could very easily get in touch with witnesses and accomplices and influence them, adding that one protected witness had received threats.

Irena Pehar, Defence attorney of indictee Maric, objected to the extension of custody, saying that there was no reasonable suspicion that he committed the crimes charged upon him under the indictment.

“The witnesses’ statements are fabricated and contradictory,” Pehar said.

She said that the reasons related to a real danger that he might flee and influence witnesses and potential eventual accomplices were not justified either, requesting the Court to replace custody with prohibiting measures, including a ban on leaving his place of residence and contacting certain persons.

“It is true that he lived at his sister’s in Dubrovnik. However, he did not do it in order to avoid the Bosnian prosecutorial bodies, but to earn money to feed his seven minor children. (…) The reasons for which he failed to respond to the Prosecution’s invitations have nothing to do with him,” Pehar said.

Maric, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with having committed persecution by participating in murders, torture and other inhumane acts within the scope of a widespread and systematic attack targeted against the Bosniak civilian population in the period from November 1992 to October 1993.

Maric was arrested in September last year. He has been held in custody since.