Sakib Dautovic Trial Begins Again
With the consent of the prosecution and the defense, the trial chamber decided not to re-examine witnesses who had already testified.
Dautovic has been charged with participating in the physical abuse of civilians at the health center in Velika Kladusa in June 1994. The civilians had been brought to the health center from the Drmaljevo detention camp, by members of the National Defense of the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region.
According to the charges, Dautovic, the former leader of the Interventions Group charged with guarding buildings, participated in taking fifteen detainees away from Drmaljevo. Dautovic acted in collaboration with persons from the Defense Ministry and the military police of the National Defense of the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region.
Rasim Erdic, who died due to the abuse he endured, was one of those detainees.
Under a first instance verdict, Dautovic was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. However, the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina quashed the verdict and ordered a retrial.
Emir Susic and medical court expert Zdenko Cihlars were questioned at todays hearing.
Susic, a crime technician with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Canton of Una-Sana, said some photographs related to the case were missing, but had been developed from negatives later on. As such, he said the photo documentation was complete.
During the exhumation we used old film cameras. We didnt develop the photographs, they were developed by a photo studio that had a contract with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After having received the prosecutions letter, I reviewed the negatives in our archives and noticed that some photographs were missing from the photo documentation file. Those photographs were developed again. The photo documentation is now complete. It has been submitted to all parties in the proceedings, said Susic.
Medical court expert Cihlars said he couldnt determine whether Erdics death had been violent or natural, due to a lack of soft tissue. Cihlars said that due to injuries, the bones could not be associated with the injured partys death.
On the basis of the available photo documentation, my opinion is that the injuries on his face were inflicted after his death, when a wooden board above his body cracked due to the weight of the soil covering it, Cihlars said.
The date of the next hearing will be set at a later stage, pending a confirmation on witness Sulejman Latics attendance and presence in the country.
