Dostic, a former member of the Bosnian Serb Army, is accused of having gone to a woman’s house in the village of Ljubovici in the Foca municipality on an unknown date between April and August 1992, ordered her to come out with him and then raped her.
According to the charges, he took her into a shed. Although she told him she was pregnant, he raped her at least twice, threatening her and saying she must not tell anyone about it.
But defence lawyer Radovic said the indictment did not contain the precise date when the crime was allegedly committed, so the defendant has been deprived of the right to defend himself with an alibi, which is granted under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The defence pointed out that the entire indictment was based on a statement given by the victim, who testified as a protected witness under the code name witness S-1.
Radovic argued that her testimony was “inconsistent” and there were several differences between the statement she gave during the investigation and her testimony at the trial.
Radovic said that, in her statement given during the investigation in 2009, S-1 said “Dostic, a blonde mailman, came and raped her once”, but she told the prosecution in 2014 that he had raped her once or twice.
However, testifying at the trial, S-1 said the defendant had raped her twice or three times.
The defense argued that her testimony should not be accepted, because she was unable to specify the date on which the attack happened or how many times she was raped.
The defence also argued that the crime had nothing to do with the war and that it was not committed during a systematic attack, so should not be classified as a war crime.
