Defence Challenges Claim that Bosniak Commander Shot Serb

The protected witness codenamed O-1 told the court on Monday that he saw Oric interrogate, hit and shoot at prisoner Milutin Milosevic in the village of Lolici in June 1992.

The witness said that a man called ‘Mrco’, who he identified as Sabahudin Muhic, Oric’s Bosnian Army subordinate who is also on trial, shoot at Milosevic as well.

Defence lawyer Lejla Covic asked the witness why he said in an earlier statement in 2014 that he only heard about the murder of Milosevic.

The witness responded by saying that he did so because he was afraid.

Explaining the differences between what he said in court and his previous statements, O-1 repeated that he did not want to speak about certain things before because he feared for his own and his family’s safety.

“I did not dare say it. I was afraid Naser Oric would find out,” the witness said.

Oric and his subordinate Muhic are being retried for the killings of three Serb prisoners in the villages of Zalazje, Lolici and Kunjerac in the Bratunac and Srebrenica areas in 1992.

The retrial is being held after the state court’s appeals chamber quashed the original acquittal of Oric and Muhic in June this year. They deny the charges.

The original trial was highly controversial because Oric is seen as a hero by many Bosniaks for his role in defending Srebrenica in the years before the 1995 massacres, while some Serbs have claimed that the charges against him should have been more severe.

The next hearing will be held on October 8.