Kovacevic trial to start in april
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The trial of Nikola Kovacevic, charged with responsibility for crimes committed in north-western Bosnia during the war, will start on April 20, judges at the Sarajevo war crimes chamber decided on Tuesday.
The state prosecutor, Dzemila Begic, said at a hearing convened to discuss the case that she planned to examine 28 witness and two experts, as well as present 111 pieces of documentary evidence during the proceedings.
Defence lawyers did not elaborate on the procedure that they would follow in presenting their evidence. But a request for the services of an additional lawyer in order to prepare for the trial was allowed by the judges.
Kovacevic, a member of the Serb Defence Forces, SOS, a special unit within the Serb territorial defence, is accused of participating in attacks against Croat and Muslim civilians in the broader Bosanska Krajina region, notably in the Sanski Most municipality, from April to August 1992.
He has been charged with taking part in the forceful detention and torture of civilians in several facilities in Sanski Most, including the notorious Manjaca concentration camp.
Civilians detained in these facilities were brutally tortured and beaten, while some of them disappeared without trace.
Nikola Kovacevic is the first individual indicted by the Bosnia and Herzegovina Prosecutor’s Office for crimes committed in Sanski Most.
At a preliminary hearing held on January 20, Kovacevic pleaded not guilty on all counts.
