Sismic: Court allows Hague indictees to testify

Judges at Bosnia’s state court have given the go-ahead for a defence lawyer representing war crimes accused Boban Simsic to visit three individuals who have been indicted by the Hague tribunal to discuss the possibility that they might appear as defence witnesses in his case.

Veljko Civsa will call on Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic in the Hague tribunal’s own detention unit in the Dutch seaside resort of Scheveningen. Mitar Vasiljevic, the third possible witness, is currently serving out his prison sentence in Austria.

Civsa said he had already spoken to the three men in question, each of whom had confirmed that they were willing to discuss the possibility of testifying in the case.

During the same court hearing on Thursday, Simsic himself once again denied allegations that he was responsible for crimes against humanity in Visegrad between April and July 1992.

Simsic’s defence counsel also challenged statements by two prosecution witnesses.

One of the witnesses, Fata Sabanovic, reaffirmed the contents of a statement that she gave to the Sarajevo Research and Documentation Centre, which prosecutors are using as evidence. But she continued to express doubts about whether the signature at the bottom of a copy of the statement in the court’s possession was hers.

“I don’t know who would be able to forge my signature, although the facts stated are correct. I was under a lot of stress and I really don’t remember whether I signed the statement or not,” Sabanovic said.

Although the statement has been accepted as evidence, the judges said that an expert will have to be called to determine the authenticity of the signature.

The defence also challenged claims that their client’s name was among those mentioned as being the perpetrators of a crime in Velji Lug by another defence witness, Almasa Ahmetspahic, in a statement she gave to the police 2003.

“That was the time when I found my mother’s remains and I was under a lot of stress,” Ahmetspahic acknowledged, explaining her own uncertainty over the matter.

Defence witnesses Munir Ahmetagic and Samir Bulatovic testified on Thursday that the accused had “saved their lives” when they were to be taken to Vilina Vlas for execution.

Ahmetagic said they were told by a soldier to get in the car after fleeing the village and reaching the Visegrad Bridge.

“That’s when Boban Simsic came along and tried to persuade his comrade to let us go because he knew us,” he said. “But this soldier still told us to get in the car and said we would soon find out how the Serbs do their slaughtering.”

According to the testimony of Bulatovic, the soldier in question was Mitar Vasiljevic. “Mitar searched me personally before I got in the car. Somehow, Boban Simsic reappeared and said the commander had ordered for us to be released. That’s how we were saved,” Bulatovic said.

The trial is set to continue on March 24, when another five key defence witnesses are due to appear before the court. Prosecutors will also proceed with cross-examining the accused.