Kadic’s Defence Requests Acquittal of Charges

In February this year the Zenica Cantonal Court pronounced Kadic guilty of having raped a female in Visoko on June 27, 1992.

Defence attorney Sead Topcic considers that the first instance verdict violated the criminal proceedings and code and wrongly determined the factual status. He called for a verdict of release. Alternatively, he proposed that a new trial be held or sentence reduced.

Topcic pointed out that he had obtained a decision from the Municipal Court in Visoko, ordering discontinuation of an earlier process against Kadic. As he said, in that decision a mistake in indictee’s name was corrected.

Federal Prosecutor Nermina Mutevelic said, commenting on those allegations by the Defence that the decision rendered on the basis of a prosecutor’s decision to give up the process could not be considered as a second instance court verdict.

“The allegations contained in the appeal that this issue had already been dealt with under another verdict do not stand at all… A process for rape was previously initiated, while a process for war crimes against the civilian population was conducted before the Cantonal Court in Zenica,” Mutevelic said.

The Supreme Court will render a decision concerning the Defence’s appeal at a later stage.

According to a verdict pronounced by the Cantonal Court in Zenica, Kadic, former member of the Army of BiH, forced a Serb woman to have sexual intercourse with him in Kula Banjer, near Visoko, on several occasions.