Bosnian Army Soldier Wants Abuse Conviction Quashed

Mujcinovic’s lawyer Nedzla Sehic filed a request to the court on Monday asking for her client’s eight-year sentence be overturned because new evidence has come out of another trial for war crimes in Srebrenik.

Sehic told BIRN that during the ongoing trial of three former Bosnian territorial defence fighters, Ekrem Ibracevic, Faruk Smajlovic and Sejdalija Covic, “new witnesses and facts came out” which clearly show that her client is not guilty.

“Testimonies under oath in this case clearly show that only members of the state and military security and military police had access to prisoners in Srebrenik, and that Zurahid Mujcinovic was never a member of either of those units,” said Sehic.

She also said that the trial revealed the real identity of the victims’ alleged abuser.

Mujcinovic, a former member of the Hunter’s Unit of the Bosnian Army in Srebrenik, was sentenced in 2013 to eight years in prison for taking part in the abuse of three Bosnian Serb civilians illegally detained at the Rapatnica Youth Hall near Srebrenik in 1992. He is currently serving his sentence.

Sehic claimed in her request to the court that two of the victims “significantly amended their statements” at the trial of Ibracevic, Smajlovic and Covic, which, she alleged, “totally discredits them as witnesses”.

“The testimony of [witness] Ismet Imsirovic also makes it clear that what he said in Mujcinovic’s trial was done under pressure and that the Bosnian prosecution knew the identity of all the people who took part in the abuse in Rapatnica, and that Mujcinovic was not one of them. This is confirmed by the statement of Enis Sofic who was the guard on the night the abuse was committed in Rapatnica,” she said.

The Bosnian prosecution had Imsirovic’s statement but “for unknown reasons, decided not to act on it”, she added.

“Mistakes are possible, they happen to everyone. The court has the difficult task to make a decision and achieve justice. In this case only the court can amend the injustice and the worst thing that can ever happen to the judiciary, which is sentencing an innocent man. Zurahid Mujcinovic is innocent,” she said.

Mujcinovic’s defence and the Bosnian prosecution had previously asked for a revision of the verdict in his case, but the court rejected this, explaining that the evidence in the request was not new.

The prosecution refused to comment on the new request, but did confirm that it had previously asked for the case to be reheard. The state court told BIRN that a decision will be made by a new panel of judges but no legal deadline for had been set for it.