Appeals Against Verdict in Subotic Case Presented

At the appeal of the Vehid Subotic case, the state prosecution called for a longer prison sentence for Subotic. Under a first instance verdict, Subotic was sentenced to 14 years in prison for war crimes committed in the village of Dusina in Zenica. Subotic’s defense has called for an acquittal.

Prosecutor Slavica Terzic requested that the court hand down a longer sentence against Subotic, bearing in mind the gravity of the crime he committed.

“The prosecution believes that when the sentence was deliberated, the chamber neglected the unscrupulous manner in which the entire Kegelj family was killed in Dusina, the murder of a disabled person and the age of the victims,” Terzic said.

Last year, the first instance chamber of the Bosnian state court found Subotic, a former member of the Second Battalion of the Seventh Muslim Brigade of the Bosnian Army, guilty of participating in the murders of six civilians and the mistreatment of one civilian in the village of Dusina on January 26, 1993.

Defense attorney Vukica Marjanovic–Suljic said the first instance verdict should be rescinded, because the defense was not allowed to examine certain witnesses during the trial. Also, she said the verdict incorrectly stated that Subotic had a command position.

“The defendant was a young adult, aged 19 at the time. The verdict doesn’t mention this at all,” Marjanovic–Suljic said.

Commenting on the witness testimony, Marjanovic–Suljic said they described Subotic in a variety of ways, and as such couldn’t be trusted.

“The witnesses mentioned the fact that he [Subotic] was hit by pieces of shrapnel several times, that he wore eyeglasses and had visible scars as his characteristic [facial] features…The first instance chamber considered this [description] solely as details, but considers the fact that my client has a glass eye important,” Marjanovic–Suljic said.

Subotic addressed the court, and said it was absurd to charge him as a person who had military authority, considering the fact that he was only 19 at the time.

“I was an ordinary soldier. I didn’t have any rank at all,” he said.

The appellate chamber will render its decision at a later stage.