Defense Presents Closing Statements at Cvetkovic Trial

Presenting its closing statement at the Aleksander Cvetkovic trial, Cvetkovic’s defense attorney said the state prosecution failed to prove elements of genocide in the case against his client.

Cvetkovic, a former member of the Tenth Commando Squad of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with participating in the mass killing of least 900 men from Srebrenica on the Branjevo farm in 1995.

Cvetkovic’s defense attorney, Petko Pavlovic, said most of the state prosecution witnesses and material evidence was irrelevant with regards to the case and his defendant. He said the evidence presented by the prosecution didn’t demonstrate elements of genocide.

Pavlovic said the state prosecution brought up numerous verdicts handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which referred to high ranking soldiers, not drivers like Cvetkovic.

Pavlovic commented on a number of witnesses who confirmed his theory that lower ranking soldiers weren’t aware of a plan for executing the inhabitants of Srebrenica, but thought they were guarding captives prior to their exchange.

“Our client was an ordinary driver, a soldier without rank. He had nothing to do with the general context of the happenings in Srebrenica, which the prosecution tried to prove. He wasn’t assigned a rifle,” Pavlovic said.

Pavlovic said witness Drazen Erdemovic directly accused Cvetkovic out of a desire for revenge. According to Pavlovic, numerous witnesses said Erdemovic threatened to take revenge on Cvetkovic, because someone told him that the defendant had an affair with his wife.

The ICTY sentenced Erdemovic to five years in prison after he plead guilty to participating in the Branjevo shooting.

Pavlovic said Cvetkovic was in a barn during the Branjevo shooting. He said a worker saw him, but was unable to recognize him with certainty in the courtroom.

“The defendant saw a pig which weighed about 400 kilograms in that barn. This was a subject of jokes for some time after that,” Pavlovic said.

Pavlovic said testimony by protected witness C-1 wasn’t trustworthy, and said the protected witness had a criminal past. He also said C-1’s allegations weren’t supported by any other witnesses.

Pavlovic said the Srebrenica inhabitants who were killed weren’t civilians, but able bodied men, pointing out that the court wasn’t obliged to accept the prosecution’s proposal regarding the legal classification of the crime.

Pavlovic also commented on statements made by a few witnesses who he said confirmed that Cvetkovic didn’t participate in the first attack on the protected enclave of Srebrenica and the UNPROFOR base, a charge attributed to him in the indictment.

Pavlovic said his client also didn’t participate in the occupation of Srebrenica, known as the Krivaja 95 military operation, on July 11, 1995.

Pavlovic said his client expressed regret for all the victims of the Bosnian war, particularly those who were killed in Branjevo in the municipality of Zvornik in July 1995.

“Our client defended himself by silence during the proceedings and behaved in a correct manner at the trial. We are asking the chamber to consider this a mitigating, not an aggravating circumstance,” Pavlovic said.

Closing statements will continue on June 17.