Defense Witness Denies Rapes Took Place at Hrasnica Detention Center

A protected defense witness testifying at the Zaim Lalicic trial said she hadn’t heard that the injured party in the case had been raped by the defendant.

Lalicic has been charged with the rape and sexual abuse of a woman in 1992 and 1993, and also has been charged with participating in the mental and physical abuse of a detained civilian. The crimes allegedly took place in the Hrasnica area in the municipality of Ilidza.

The protected witness, O-1, was detained in the detention facility at the same time as injured party S.M. O-1 said S.M. didn’t tell her that she’d been raped or threatened.

According to O-1, S.M. didn’t mention Lalicic to her. She said she found about the rape allegations from the media.

“When I was released, everyone was saying we’d been raped. None of us were. I wasn’t,” said O-1. She said women were taken out, mostly two at a time, to wash dishes and clean.

O-1 said “all of the women were sad,” but said she didn’t notice that S.M. behaved differently.

O-1 said Zaim Lalicic didn’t mistreat her, and even brought her a cup of coffee while she was cleaning.

When asked by prosecutor Vladimir Simovic whether the prisoners were afraid to confide in each other, O-1 said “no one confided in others” and she “cried because she was there.” She said she didn’t know whether S.M. confided to other prisoners, but she did not confide in her.

Simovic asked O-1 whether male prisoners were beaten. O-1 said she didn’t know.

O-1 said she was friendly with the defendant, and that they “greet each other when they meet and that is all.”

At the end of the hearing, the prosecution said it had revised the indictment by adjusting the factual description of two counts.

The date of the next hearing will be set at a later stage.