No Jurisdiction over Detention Facility

Witness Midhat Hodzic, former Assistant Commander for Security with the Municipal Defence Headquarters in Kakanj, said that the detention facility was not under the jurisdiction of the Headquarters. 

He said that it was known to him that the indictee was there, but he did not know who appointed him or what his duties were. 

The Defence presented this witness with an authorisation for release of Stjepan Kalfic from the detention unit, which he signed. 

Hodzic said that it was not known to him who arrested and detained that man. As he said, Kalfic was brought for an interview. He said that he determined that there was no need to hold him in detention, so he wrote an authorisation for his release. 

When the Defence said that, during his testimony as a witness Kalfic said that he was beaten up and that the witness examined him twice, Hodzic said that he had seen Kalfic only once, that he did not know that he was beaten up and that he did not notice any injuries on him. 

According to the charges, Sehagic, former Manager of the detention facility in the old Directorate building of the Brown Coal Mine in Kakanj, participated in the torture of Croat detainees. 

Witness Hamdija Sljuka, former Assistant Commander for legal affairs with the Municipal Defence Headquarters in Kakanj, said that the detention unit was not part of the Municipal Headquarters, but the 309th Mountain Brigade of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, RBiH.

Sljuka said that he neither knew who established the detention unit nor who detained and examined people. 

The witness was presented with an order, under which a Municipal Headquarters officer established the detention centre and appointed Jasmin Sehagic its Manager. Sljuka was not able to comment on the document, saying that this was not known to him and that he found it illogical, adding that he thought that the Municipal Headquarters had nothing to do with the detention unit. 

He confirmed that he once intervened in order to have a detainee released. 

“As a friend of mine asked me to help her brother, I called Jasmin and explained to him that he was a good man and that he should be released. He asked me to sign a document, confirming that. I did that. At that moment I did not think about a possibility that I was breaking some rules. I could not order him to do it. I wanted to help a decent man. Jasmin did that as well,” Sljuka said. 

Witness Ilija Drenic recalled having been brought to the military detention unit, where he saw the indictee and another man nicknamed Role, who wrote down his personal data. 

“I stayed there for three days. I was not mistreated during that time. I saw military policemen bringing people. Soldiers brought some men too… I did not see that anybody was beaten. Nobody told me about it either,” Drenic said. 

The trial is due to continue on April 8.