Analysis – Verdict in Condric Trial Expected Friday

Condric, a former member of the Croatian Defense Council’s military police, has been charged with war crimes committed in the Bosanski Brod area in the summer of 1992. The defense claims Condric has been incorrectly identified as the perpetrator by the prosecution.

The state prosecution has charged Condric with allowing two soldiers to rape a Bosniak woman, and then raping her himself.

The rape allegedly occurred at the Polet football stadium in Bosanski Brod. The testimony of numerous women who were raped while held in detention at the stadium was heard throughout the trial.

“They [the women prisoners] were in the locker room next to ours. Commanders and soldiers were allowed to come and pick those women up, take them away and do whatever they wanted to them,” a former prisoner and protected witness said at the trial.

Condric has also been charged with the abuse of a Serb civilian in an old police building.

Testimony of Key Witnesses Closed to Public

The trial began three months after Condric’s arrest in November 2014. The public was not allowed to be present during the testimony of key witnesses.

Prosecutor Milanko Kajganic said a statement given by a protected witness known as N.H., who accused Condric of raping her, was supported by the testimony of other witnesses as well.

Condric’s defense argued that N.H. failed to mention Condric in previous statements, and only began mentioning him by name in a statement she gave in 2014. Condric’s defense attorney, Davor Silic, commented on a statement N.H. gave to an investigative judge in Derventa during the investigation of the case. He said in that statement, N.H. only mentioned her rapist’s first name, Mato. Silic said it appeared that another man named Mato had taken women prisoners away from the stadium, based on the material submitted as evidence to the trial.

According to the charges, N.H.’s rape happened in late July or early August 1992. Condric allegedly took N.H. out of the stadium’s locker room (where women prisoners were held), and took her to another room.

The initial testimony was closed to public. This included the testimony of a witness who said she’d been raped at the stadium, as well as another state prosecution witness. The public received information about this testimony from statements made by the prosecutor, defense attorney and defendant.

Prosecutor Kajganic maintains there is no doubt the perpetrator in the case is Condric.

“As far as the defendant’s identity is concerned, N.H. identified him in six photos and described him. She said she found out his first and last name from other women detained at the Polet stadium. She also recognized the defendant in the courtroom on March 11, 2015,” Kajganic said in his closing statement.

Condric claims he first heard about the woman he allegedly raped at the trial.

Testifying in his own defense, he said the seat of the military police was moved from the old police building to the Polet football stadium in late June or early July 1992. He said he was wounded on July 27, 1992, and was on sick leave for the next ten days.

“I was at my sister’s home in Slavonski Brod,” Condric said.

Documentation on his injuries was included in the case file. Condric also said several other members of the military police were named Mato. This part of his testimony was confirmed by defense witness Josip Blazevic, a former member of the military police in Bosanski Brod.

Defense Claims Wrong Perpetrator Was Targeted

“N.H. mentioned my client’s name for the first time in 2014. We consider this a product of suggestive questioning. Later on the injured party said she had a dilemma and couldn’t exactly remember Mato’s surname,” Silic said in his closing statement.

According to Silic, after having been severely wounded, Condric couldn’t have been at the stadium in the period covered by the indictment. During the trial he also commented on a statement given by deceased witness Koviljka Stojkovic, which was read aloud in the courtroom.

“Mato, who, I think, was from Sijekovac, used to come to our room and take women away,” the statement indicates.

Silic said Stojkovic knew Mato Condric, but she mentioned a Mato from Sijekovac in her statement.

Under the second count of the indictment, Condric has been charged with mistreating a civilian named Marko Mitric in an old police building in Bosanski Brod. Mitric was unable to testify in the courtroom due to his poor health, so the prosecutor read a statement Mitric gave to the prosecution during the investigation phase of the case.

In that statement, Mitric said he was arrested at the beginning of June 1992 and was taken to the Marsonija Hotel in Slavonski Brod.

“Later on I was transferred to the old police building in Brod, where they asked me if I had weapons. They hit me with their fists and kicked me…I remember Mato Condric. He used to punch and kick me. He hit me on the back with a shovel,” Mitric said.

Kajganic also read a statement Mitric gave to the Basic Court in Derventa in 1994. In that statement he hadn’t mentioned that Condric had beaten him. Condric said he “never even said any bad words” to Mitric, “let alone hit him.”

Condric will attend the pronouncement of his verdict from the detention unit. Nine witnesses and the defendant testified at the trial. Statements given by three deceased female witnesses, as well as one witness in poor health, were read aloud in the courtroom.