Defense Testimony Given at Trial for Prisoner Mistreatment on Mount Igman

The prosecution has accused Salcin of cutting off a part of the ear of a former prisoner of war, Dragan Vukovic. The defense says that Salcin was not the perpetrator of the crime, but rather a military driver of a Zulfikar Unit commander.

Defense witness Bedirhan Mesic said that Salcin and the driver, whose name he did not know, both were nicknamed “Struja.”

Mesic, a former soldier with the Zulfikar Unit, said that he saw Vukovic while serving time in a detention camp in Silos, Hadzic. Mesic had been ordered into detention by his commander in April 1993.

Mesic said members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina were held separately from Bosnian Serb prisoners at Silos, but they were able to have contact with one another.

According to Mesic, Zulfikar Unit Commander Alispago visited the Silos detention camp, accompanied by his driver.

When they left, Mesic testified that he heard Vukovic say that the person who came with Commander Alispago cut a part of his ear off. Prosecutor Vladimir Simovic said that Vukovic had never said that.

Mesic also said that he had never seen or heard that defendant Salcin mistreated prisoners on Mount Igman.

Nusret Djelilovic, another defense witness, was then questioned about the behaviour of the commander’s driver, whose name was Husein Sadikovic.

“In my personal opinion, he was a quarrelsome guy,” said Djelilovic, who worked at a military hospital in Suhodol during the war.

Djelilovic described how Sadikovic acted when paramedics confirmed the death of a Zulfikar Unit member who had been brought to the hospital from the battlefield.

Djelilovic recalled that music came from one of the hospital rooms. “Shooting and crashing” followed, he said. “Mr. Sadikovic was shooting and throwing stones at windows,” Djelilovic said, adding that Sadikovic committed suicide a few years ago.

The trial is scheduled to continue on February 12.