State Prosecution Presents Closing Statement in Markovic Trial

The state prosecution has charged Bosiljko and Ostoja Markovic with the rape of a minor in the municipality of Kotor-Varos on June 28, 1992. The injured party testified at this trial under the pseudonym S-4.

Prosecutor Olivera Djuric said the prosecution proved that the defendants were members of the Kotor-Varos Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army and that they had participated in the rape with Predrag Cicmanovic (now deceased).

She pointed out that witnesses for both the prosecution and the defense confirmed that the defendants were in the mini-van in which S-4 was raped.

“The witness said she was raped by several persons. They raped her alternately, with force. Two of them also forced her to perform oral sex,” Djuric said.

Djuric pointed out that the defense didn’t deny that S-4 was raped, but claimed that only Predrag Cicmanovic participated in her rape. She said this was an attempt on the part of the defendants to avoid their criminal responsibility.

Djuric said S-4’s claim that several persons raped her was convincing and confirmed by the testimony of other witnesses. Djuric described the alibi of the defendants as pure fiction.

Djuric said there wasn’t even one realistic mitigating circumstance for the defendants, but a number of aggravating circumstances.

“As a consequence of the rape, the lives of both S-4 and her family have been totally changed. She will be traumatized her whole life,” Djuric said.

Nedzla Sehic, S-4’s legal representative, said that the court should order Bosiljko and Ostoja Markovic to jointly pay KM 40,000 as compensation for the physical pain, mental suffering and fear the injured party had to endure, and said that S-4’s ability to lead a normal life was reduced by 12 percent.

“There is no adequate compensation for what was done to the injured party by this crime. Her destroyed dreams, her interrupted youth and her life which has been destroyed forever, that has no price,” Sehic said.

Sehic said that in the case of a legal suit, the identity of the injured party would have to be revealed, and as such proposed that the state court render a decision ordering compensation for non-material damage.

The defense teams of Bosiljko and Ostoja Markovic will present their closing statements on May 26.