Terrorism Defendant ‘Interpreted for Bosnian Unit Chief in Syria’

The protected witness codenamed N-2, who testified from a separate room with his face and voice disguised, said he travelled to Azaz in Syria and later to Haritan with his family in late 2013.

“I stayed in Haritan, in the Haritan suburban area, where there were many Bosnians,” N-2 said.

He said that he remained in the town for three or four months, during which time he saw defendant Keserovic.

He said that Bosnians and their families lived in a former school complex.

N-2 said that the Liberation Army and Jabhat al-Nusra were present in the area, while people from Bosnia and Herzegovina were members of the Bejt Komandos unit, which was part of so-called Islamic State forces from March or April 2014.

But he explained that some of the Bosnians returned to Bosnia “because they did not want to take part in all that”.

He said he went to Raqqa in April 2014 and stayed there for around a year. When he was there, he used to see Keserovic, who occasionally showed up for guard, which were organized by a man called Goran Pavlovic.

According to the witness, at that time Raqqa was controlled by Islamic State.

He explained that his unit split into two parts, one of which stayed in Raqqa under Goran Pavlovic’s command, while the second was in Manbij under Ramo Pazara’s control. Both units belonged to Islamic State, he said.

“I stayed near Manbij briefly, for a couple of months or so, and then we moved to Manbij itself,” he said.

The unit which had stayed behind in Raqqa then arrived in Manbij a couple of months later.

“We saw them a couple of times. We visited the place where they were staying,” he said.

N-2 said that Goran Pavlovic “was in charge of everything” in that unit, and that he heard that Keserovic was Pavlovic’s right-hand man because he could speak Arabic.

When asked by the defence whether Keserovic provided interpretation, the witness said yes, adding that the defendant assisted during meetings and with shopping.

N-2 said knew Keserovic from before the Syria conflict. He said the defendant was from Zavidovici in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that he used to see him in Gornja Maoca, adding that he had long hair when he last saw him.

He described Keserovic as being around 1.8 metres tall with a “normal body shape”, and said he had a short beard and wore a uniform when he saw him in Syria.

“All those who were in that area [of Syria] had to have automatic weapons,” N-2 added.

He also said he heard that Bosnian fighters took an oath, but he could not remember being told by Keserovic that he too had taken an oath.

When asked by the defence about Keserovic going on lookout duty, the witness said the defendant would do this sometimes, but he was more involved in taking care of women at the camp and food supplies, and that he never saw him take part in some of the battles.

Keserovic is charged with joining foreign military units and inciting terrorist acts.

Responding to the prosecution’s questions, the witness said he spoke to Keserovic during his stay in Syria because they knew each other, but that they did not have a “special relationship”. He confirmed that Keserovic was the person sitting in the courtroom.

N-2 said that he returned to Bosnia just before mid-2016 because of the fighting in the area in which he was staying in Syria.

The trial continues on February 2.