Maric’s Trial Begins Next Week

During a pre-trial status conference Prosecutor Sanja Jukic said that she planned to examine 113 witnesses and present 109 pieces of material evidence.

“Three court experts and 18 protected witnesses are among the 113 witnesses. We would like to propose that the presentation of evidence last 62 days,” Prosecutor Jukic said.

The Defence said that it did not have a complete proposal of evidence, but, for the time being, it planned to examine 24 witnesses.

Maric, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, is charged, under 25 counts, with having committed persecution by participating in murders, torture and other inhumane acts against the Bosniak population from November 1992 to October 1993.

Besides that, he is charged with having ordered an HVO member to kill a sick old man and, acting in collaboration with a few other unidentified HVO members, personally taken six Bosniak civilians out of the Secondary School Centre in Prozor in late summer of 1993. The civilians have been missing without trace since.

Maric has been held in custody since his arrest in September last year.