No Information about Detention Facility

Zaim Mujezinovic, a former Commander of the Military Police Battalion with the Third Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, said that it was not known to him that a detention facility was located in the Directorate of the Brown Coal Mine in Kakanj and that he did not remember anybody filing a report against indictee Sehagic.

When asked by indictee Sehagic to say which members of the Military Police Battalion examined civilians who were detained in that building, Mujezinovic said that the Battalion acted on orders issued by the Third Corps Commander, accompanied by expert instructions by the Security Chief.

“It is possible that authorised personnel from the Battalion conducted some official actions in the area mentioned in the indictment. However, each individual order contained a specific explanation of who did what,” Mujezinovic said.

According to the charges, Sehagic, former Manager of a detention facility in the old Directorate of the Brown Coal Mine in Kakanj, participated in the torture of Croat detainees.

The Cantonal Prosecution in Zenica alleges that Sehagic failed to undertake the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent torture and report the torture perpetrators to his superiors in order to make sure that they would be sanctioned.

Mujezinovic said that, without an organisational order, the number of perpetrators, their expertise and other details related to the organisation of that retention facility, he was not able to say whether Sehagic, as its Manager, could keep that facility under control or not.

The trial is due to continue on February 16.