Black Uniform and Headband

Witness S-13 said that Nikola Maric, also known as Kobra, who was accompanied by other members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, captured him in July 1993.

“I had known him from before. Also, everybody was talking about him at that time. Black uniform, headband. He carried a pistol. That was his image,” the witness recalled, adding that he was taken to the Secondary School Centre in Prozor, where he stayed until November 1993.

He said that indictee Maric used to come to the Secondary School Centre often, just like his brother, whose nickname was Cela.

“Nikola Maric came one evening. He read the names of Ahmet Hodzic, Omer Purgic and four other men, whom I did not know, from a list he brought. He escorted them down the stairs and hit one of them on his back,” the witness said, adding that he still did not know what had happened to those six men.

Nikola Maric, also known as Nidzo, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with having participated in murders, persecution, torture and other inhumane acts in the Prozor area fom November 1992 to October 1993.

According to the charges, in late August or at the beginning of September 1993 Maric took six people from the Secondary School Centre. Bajro Pilav, Ahmet Hodzic, Omer Purgic and Nuro Imamovic were among them. The bodies of those men have still not been found.

Testifying at this hearing, Mujo Lulic and Muharem Malanovic said that they were captured in Gracanica village in July 1993 and taken to the Secondary School Centre in Prozor by truck.

“He wore a black uniform. He had a knife in his boot, rather long beard and hair. At that time I did not know who he was. My neighbours told me that it was Nidzo,” Malanovic said, describing the man, who captured him.

Witness Malanovic recognized Nikola Maric in the courtroom, saying that he was the man who took him out of his house that day.

Lulic said that he stayed in the Secondary School Centre for three or four days and that he was then transferred to Dretelj detention camp, Capljina, while his family was deported from Prozor municipality along with other Bosniak residents.

The trial is due to continue on January 15.