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“Out of a total of 12 counts, Tolic was sentenced for crimes described in five of them. The defense believes the sentence handed down for those five actions is too severe,” defense attorney Rifat Konjic said. Konjic asked the court to repeal the first instance verdict and order a retrial.
In its appeal, which prosecutor Milorad Barasin did not explain in detail in the courtroom, the state prosecution requested that the acquitting part of the verdict be repealed in order to renew the proceedings against Tolic and come to a guilty verdict.
Under the first instance verdict, Tolic was found guilty of the inhumane treatment and assault of Serb civilians who were detained in school buildings in Bosanski Brod and Odzak from May to November 1992. It was determined that detainees Rade Tomanovic and Mirko Pajic were beaten to death.
According to the indictment, Tolic took Serb women away from the premises of a construction material warehouse in Bosanski Brod – one of the women was raped. He was also accused of taking detainees to other locations to perform forced labour. Many detainees lost their lives at those locations.
Tolic was acquitted of charges of torture, rape, assault, murder, and theft.
Explaining its appeal, the defense said that the state court’s verdict didn’t contain a sufficient explanation as to why statements given by certain witnesses had been taken into consideration despite the fact that their statements at the main trial differed from what they had previously told police and investigative bodies.
“The testimony of all the witnesses upon which the verdict is based have one thing in common: they all added Josip Tolic’s name to events they had previously described…I’m referring to statements given back in 1993 or 1995. It’s logical to trust statements given only a couple years after a certain event, because the witnesses’ memories of the event are still fresh,” Konjic said.
Prosecutor Milorad Barasin disagreed with the claim related to differences between the statements of witnesses.
“A witness may remember some decisive facts in 2015. The person examining the witness is also important,” Barasin said.
Tolic addressed the appeals chamber and said he didn’t participate in any murders.
“I swear I didn’t participate in the beating and murder of Rade Tomanovic and Mirko Pajic…My mindset and biography show that I couldn’t do such a thing to anyone,” Tolic said.
Tolic’s defense also requested that the appeals chamber reconsider a court order which has held Tolic in custody since 2013. The defense proposed that the defendant be allowed to defend himself at liberty.
The chamber will render a decision concerning the presented appeals at a later stage.
