Witnesses to Be Invited again to Testify at Jukic’s Trial

During a pre-trial status conference Appellate Chamber Chairman Milos Babic said that the Prosecution’s proposal to reproduce the witnesses’ testimonies was rejected.

“These witnesses must be invited again and examined. Their testimonies do not exist for this Court…These are procedural and legal deficiencies of the first instance verdict,” Babic said.

The Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, quashed the part of the first instance verdict, under which Jukic, a former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, was pronounced guilty of having participated in the forced disappearance of five civilians, as well as the abuse, robbing and forced relocation of the local population from Prozor municipality.

At the status conference Prosecutor Sanja Jukic proposed that the witnesses’ testimonies be reproduced, saying that inviting them to testify again would cause the additional traumatization of those witnesses.

Defence attorney Irena Pehar objected to this, pointing to the “unlawful representation of Defence at the six hearings at which key witnesses were examined.”
“No evidence can be presented. It would go to the detriment of the indictee,” Pehar pointed out.
According to the Defence, the part of the first instance trial from August 30, 2012 to January 22, 2013 was disputable, because former Defence attorney Zlatko Milavic was removed from the list of attorneys.

Pehar proposed that two additional witnesses be examined, adding that those persons expressed a wish to appear as witnesses in this case following the pronouncement of the first instance verdict.

As she said, one of them would testify about the circumstances related to the existence of a systematic attack, while the other one would testify about the indictee’s whereabouts during the period when the crime was committed.

The retrial start date will be determined at a later stage.