Rackovic’s Defence Completes Presentation of Evidence

Among other things, the Defence included reports on the examination of witnesses, as well as certificates issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP of RS, proving that indictee Rackovic had never taken a driving test and that a driver’s licence had never been issued in his name.

“By this document we deny the Prosecution’s evidence from the indictment, which says that Rackovic drove a truck known as ‘tamic’. Also, the same set of documents contains a document, indicating that the indictee was never a member of reserve police forces in Visegrad. By including it in the case file we deny the allegations from the indictment,” attorney Petko Pavlovic said.

Prosecutor Dzevad Muratbegovic did not object to these pieces of evidence, mentioning that the Prosecution had never said that Rackovic possessed a driver’s licence or that he was member of the reserve forces of Visegrad police.

“There is nothing disputable with regard to those pieces of evidence. We do not object to them. Our objection related to authenticity and relevance refer to certain reports on questioning and examining witnesses, as some of the witnesses even said that the reports did not contain their authentic signatures,” the Prosecutor said.

The Defence of the indictee proposed to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, orders a graphology examination of the disputable reports, but the Prosecution objected to the proposal.

“We object to the graphology examination. The signatures on the reports are visibly different. Such expert examination would lead to additional costs and delay the process,” Muratbegovic said.

Rackovic, a former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with having participated in attacks on Bosniak villages, detention, torture, forcible disappearances and rape, from May to the end of August 1992.

The Defence also presented, as evidence, a video recording, depicting a certain Senadin Memic speaking about the arming of Muslims in Eastern Bosnia, as well as a recording from June 1991, depicting a group of people setting a Serbian flag on fire at a square in Visegrad.

Explaining the video recording, attorney Pavlovic said that under the mentioned piece of evidence the Defence confirmed the allegations related to the general context of events and arming of the local population.

The Prosecution objected to relevance of this piece of evidence, saying that the event in Visegrad was recorded in 1991, in other words, one year prior to the event mentioned in the indictment.

The Court of BiH is due to announce its decision regarding the eventual graphology examination of some witness examination reports at the next hearing, which is scheduled for January 27. At that same hearing the Prosecution of BiH will begin replying to Defence’s evidence and examine its four additional witnesses.