Jovan Popovic has been charged with abducting civilians in Rodica Brdo in the Visegrad area in mid-June 1992 and taking them to a police station. The civilians have remained missing since. He has also been charged with pillaging houses in Rodica Brdo and other villages.
Popovic allegedly acted in collaboration with a group of soldiers led by Milan Lukic, a Bosnian Serb paramilitary leader sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hague Tribunal for war crimes in Visegrad.
At today’s hearing, prosecutor Seid Marusic read a statement deceased witness Ragib Fejzic gave during the investigation phase of the case. In his statement, Fejzic described how his son’s car was stolen in the vicinity of the village of Okruglo in the summer of 1992.
Fejzic told investigators that Popovic, accompanied by two other men, appeared in front of his house armed and dressed in civil suits. In his statement, Fejzic said they entered the garage and drove his son’s car away.
Defense attorney Nenad Rubez said if Fejzic were alive, he would have asked him who drove the car, how they turned it on, and where they would have gotten the key from.
Prosecutor Seid Marusic then read a statement deceased witness Abid Medjuseljac, also given during the investigation phase of the case. Medjuseljac used to live in the village of Babin Potok in Visegrad. His statement mostly referred to events that took place in Visegrad following the arrival of the Uzicki Corps from Serbia.
In his statement, Medjuseljac told investigators that he knew Popovic, but didn’t see him in 1992. He said he heard that Popovic was a Chetnik when he came to wartime Rodica Brdo. Defense attorney Rubez said he would have liked to have asked Medjuseljac to explain what he meant when he described Popovic as a Chetnik.
The trial will continue on January 20, 2016. At the next hearing, two defense witnesses will be examined. Defense attorney Rubez said he would examine a total of five witnesses in the trial.
