State Prosecution Calls for Repeal of Dragan Sekaric Verdict

The prosecution requested that the court repeal the counts in the indictment which were granted acquittals and to order a new trial before the appeals chamber, with the aim of handing down a longer prison sentence.

Sekaric also requested a retrial, in order to prove his innocence.

The chair of the appeals chamber, Redzib Begic, said the appeal filed by Sekaric’s defense attorney, Mirsada Beganovic-Zutic, was rejected as it had not been filed in a timely manner.

Prosecutor Seid Marusic said the factual status of the acquitted counts had been incorrectly and incompletely determined by the first instance chamber.

“The prosecution believes that the first instance chamber incorrectly assessed the evidence or has not assessed it at all,” Marusic said.

Under the first instance verdict from February 2015, Sekaric was acquitted of three counts referring to his alleged participation in an attack on Kokino Selo in the municipality of Gorazde, the robbery and abduction of Dzemail Zukic and his son (both of whom have remained missing since), and the mistreatment of one person in the Uzamnica detention camp.

He was found guilty of murder and rape committed in Kosovo Polje in June 1992.

In his appeal, Dragan Sekaric said the first instance verdict was based on testimony given by a protected witness known as S-1, whose statements were contradictory.

Sekaric said the statements given by S-1 and a few other prosecution witnesses were false. He claimed he neither committed nor contributed, in any way, to the acts of rape and murder he was sentenced for.

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court will render its decision at a later stage.