Witness Says Goran Mrdja Killed Her Husband in Gorice

The state prosecution has charged Goran Mrdja, Milorad Mrdja, Ranko Mrdja and Mile Kokot, all former members of the Sixth Sanska Infantry Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, with participating in crimes against Bosniaks in the Sanski Most area from 1992 to 1994. The alleged crimes include acts of murder, rape, assault, theft, as well as other kinds of mental and physical abuse.

State prosecution witness Seida Velic testified at today’s hearing. She described the intrusion of two armed men in her house on the night of May 2 or 3.

“I heard the doorbell ring two or three times. After that someone banged at the door and broke in. I opened the window and called for help,” Velic said.

She said her husband jumped through another window and that she heard a gunshot fired shortly afterwards. She said she wanted to leave through the door, but one of the men took her back to another room.

“He put a knife to my throat and held a handgun to my forehead…I gave him my ring,” Velic said. She said the man demanded money and gold jewelry.

She said she didn’t see what was happening in the other rooms, but heard her father-in-law crying while being beaten.

Velic said she couldn’t describe the face of the man who was with her in the room, because it was dark and he ordered her not to look at him. She said he was wearing a fur hat. She said she saw the other man only very briefly, and he was carrying a rifle.

Velic said her brother-in-law found her husband’s body 30 meters away from the house.

“I did not recognize those faces. My neighbours, who were also attacked, told me those men were from Lipnik…Kinez, a man named Goran,” Velic said.

During cross-examination, Velic said a man named Pero Grujic told her husband had been killed by Goran Mrdja.

The trial will continue on November 23.