Tanaskovic detained for a month

Nenad Tanaskovic, who is suspected of carrying out war crimes in Visegrad, will be detained for one month, the War Crimes Chamber has decided.

Tanaskovic was arrested on July 11, on the orders of the state prosecutor’s office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At the hearing on Wednesday, the Bosnian state prosecution asked the War Crimes Chamber to detain Tanaskovic until the end of its investigation. Prosecutor David Schwendiman said the suspect should be detained because of the gravity of the crime in question and the possibility that he may escape and influence potential witnesses.

He added that some of the possible witnesses in this case had already been questioned while others would be contacted in the near future.

Schwendiman also said that the names of witnesses had already been given to Tanaskovic’s defence counsel Dragan Borovcanin, which he claimed further increased the possibility that the suspect may seek to influence them.

The defence objected to this allegation, arguing that it was speculative and that there was no specific evidence to prove such claims.

In addition, the prosecution further stated that the there was a high risk that the suspect would flee to Serbia, considering that the town in which he lives is on the very border of the two countries.

Borovcanin also refuted this, adding that Tanaskovic should be set free during the investigation because otherwise “he would be deprived of employment”.

However, the War Crimes Chamber rejected the defence’s appeal and ordered that Tanaskovic be detained until August 12.