Clarifying Key Witness’ Statements

Witness Midhat Sehovic said that he and his colleagues from the State Security Service in Gorazde collected information about the movements of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, and that, when local citizens from other towns arrived in Gorazde, they began recording data about the movement of civilians, murders and other events as well.

“People spoke about what they saw or heard from others. Their statements were noted down directly in most cases,” Sehovic explained.

As he said, due to poor working conditions at the time, inspectors wrote the statements on a piece of paper. The statements were retyped in 1995, when the persons, who had originally given those statements, were invited again.

On the basis of his signature, Sehovic determined that he took a statement from Ferid Spahic on September 11, 1992. In his statement Spahic spoke about the murder of civilians near the Paklenik pit, but the witness mentioned that he neither remembered Spahic’s face nor his statement.

The Trial Chamber invited this witness, because the Defence of Predrag Milisavljevic presented Ferid Spahic’s statement as evidence at the hearing held on April 1, but the Prosecution objected to the authenticity of his signature.

Witness Sehovic said that citizens signed the statements written on a piece of paper and that, once the statements were retyped, the persons were invited again. He said that, in most of the cases, those persons signed the retyped statements.

Predrag Milisavljevic, Milos Pantelic and Ljubomir Tasic are on trial for having committed murders of Bosniak civilians near the Paklenik put and forced resettlement of people from the Visegrad area.

According to the charges, Milisavljevic and Pantelic were reserve policemen in Visegrad, while Tasic was VRS member.

Responding to Defence’s questions, Sehovic confirmed that the persons, who were invited to give their statements, confirmed that the content of their statements was dictated to them and that they were ready to confirm their allegations in court.

As he said, in case a citizen had objections, those objections were included in the statement.

With the aim of further clarifying the uncertainties related to Ferid Spahic’s statement, the Trial Chamber decided to invite Spahic to testify again at the next hearing scheduled for May 13.

Spahic, who survived the shooting near the Paklenik pit, said, while testifying before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in December 2012, that Predrag Milisavljevic was one of the executors.