Short and then Longer Reading of Nikolics Statement
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According to the summary presented by the State Prosecution, Nikolic said that Ljubisa Borovcanin was informed about the situation in the Srebrenica area in July 1995 and that the Special Unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was ordered to liquidate people.
Momir Nikolic, former Officer for Security with the Bratunac Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, admitted guilt, before the Tribunal in 2003, for the persecution of Bosniaks from Srebrenica. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The Hague Tribunal sentenced Borovcanin to 17 years in prison for crimes committed in Srebrenica.
Nikolic said that he saw a mass of people in Potocari and that between 600 and 650 men were separated from the rest of the people, adding that he heard that an order to kill those men was issued. He said that Srebrenica was conquered on July 11 and that he saw between 80 and 100 captives, as well as corpses, in Sandici. The Defence of indictee Aleksandar Cvetkovic objected to the reading of the summary of the transcript, because it considered that it was too short to cover 1,000 pages of transcript of his testimony, which lasted several days.
We object to the entire summary. We have prepared questions related to the full transcript, Defence attorney Petko Pavlovic said.
The Trial Chamber rendered a decision to consider the summary only, and not the entire 1,000-page transcript of the testimony. For that reason, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced a longer reading of Momir Nikolics statement at the next hearing.
As said at this hearing, indictee Cvetkovic refused to accept medical therapy yesterday, because he was banned from contacting his relatives.
The Chamber announced that the Ministry of Justice made the decision and that it referred to all detainees in detention units of the Court of BiH.
The Prosecution of BiH charges Aleksandar Cvetkovic, former member of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad of VRS, with the murder of more than 900 Bosniaks on Branjevo military farm in July 1995. ? ?
The trial is due to continue on June 9.
