Uncategorized @bs

Kidnapping Unregistered for Two Years

17. December 2014.00:00
Testifying before the Travnik Cantonal Court, witness Midhad Campara says that the kidnapping of Aleksa Kostres, which was committed by members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, in the central part of Travnik town in May 1992, was not registered by Travnik police until the end of 1993.

This post is also available in: Bosnian

Campara, former Senior Inspector for the fight against crime with the Public Safety Station in Travnik, said that it was determined, through check-ups, that the kidnapping was not registered. Campara said that Sajma, the wife of missing Kostres, approached the police in late 1993 and warned it about this fact.
 
“I had just been appointed the Chief,” Campara said, explaining that Srecko Veber, Zoran Tuka and Bruno Saric were reported for kidnapping at that time.
 
The witness confirmed that Veber and Tuka had had police records before, adding that he did not know indictee Saric from previous police reports.
 
Witness Campara confirmed that he prepared a report and included it in the Registry of Events, adding that he also made a criminal report later on. The witness said that the reported persons were not available to them due to the conflict between the Army of BiH and HVO.
 
Former HVO member Bruno Saric is charged with having taken Aleksa Kostres from his building on May 24, 1992. Kostres has been missing without trace since. He was charged together with two other former HVO members Zoran Tuka and Srecko Veber, but they died in the meantime.
 
Witness Dusan Lukic, former policeman with the Public and Safety Station in Travnik, confirmed that he happened to be in the Police Station, when his neighbour Sajma Kostres, who seemed upset, came and asked for help, because her husband had been taken away.
 
“When I asked her who had taken him away, she said that it was her closest neighbour Veber and Ivica Saric’s son,” Lukic said. 
 
Miroslav Kozina, Defence attorney of indictee Saric, presented the witness with a statement given to the Prijedor Prosecution, in which he did not mention “Ivica Saric’s son”, but he mentioned 1993. 
 
The witness said that a mistake in the minutes was made and that he was sure that it happened in 1992. As far as “Ivica Saric’s son” is concerned, he said that he heard later on that he was mentioned in relation to Kostres’ kidnapping.
 
The trial is due to continue on January 16, 2015.

Kenan Kavazović


This post is also available in: Bosnian