Injuries on Mutapcic’s Body

Enes Mutapcic recalled what he saw, when he came in order to bury Ahmet Mutapcic and Ibrahim Kustura, who were killed.

“We went to the place at which they were killed together with Islam Kustura. (…) I saw that Ahmet’s hands were cut. It looked as if he was trying to defend himself. I approached him and noticed that he had been stabbed in his stomach with a knife. They were killed by being shot in their heads from a pistol,” witness Enes Mutapcic said.

The witness also said that he knew Suhra Kustura and her daughter Fatima and that he heard that they were detained and set on fire inside a house.

When asked by Prosecutor Dzevad Muratbegovic whether he knew indictee Petar Kovacevic, the witness answered affirmatively and recognised him in the courtroom.

The witness said that he used to see Mujo Gacko in Dobrun and that he heard that Petar Kovacevic killed him.

When asked by attorney Petko Pavlovic whether he used to see the indictee during those events, the witness responded negatively.

“I only heard about those happenings … I did not see the murders,” Mutapcic explained.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, charges Petar Kovacevic, a former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, with having participated in murders, rape and unlawful arrest of civilians in Visegrad, including the murder of Mujo Gacko in Dobrun village, in late May 1992.

According to the charges, he participated, together with a group of armed soldiers, in an attack against the Bosniak population in Zlatnik, Turjak and Zanozje villages, when two civilians were killed by fire arms and houses, in which three women were burnt, were set on fire by being shot at from fire arms.

Court medicine expert Zdenko Cihlarz presented his findings at this hearing. He said that he visited Zlatnik village at the beginning of September 2002 and that he conducted a court medicine examination of bodies exhumed in that area.

The court expert said that, as far as the remains of Mujo Gacko were concerned, he noticed head trauma and shoulder injuries. The court expert saw head and chest injuries on the remains of Ibrahim Kustura and the destruction of the head, caused by a bullet, on Ahmet Mutapcic’s body.

Court expert Cihlarz said that he conducted an expert examination at the site at which Dervis Kustura’s house was burnt down.

“The discovered skeletal remains were exposed to fire, so it was not possible to determine their sex, age or cause of death. One could only determine that the remains belonged to Suhra and Fatima Kustura,” the expert said.

Responding to a Defence’s question, the court expert said that the time of death could not be determined and that he could not specify what weapons were used.

The trial is due to continue on January 19.