Ljubicic: Five years in pre-trial detention

There has been a further delay in attempts to adapt the indictment against Pasko Ljubicic to local laws – further extending the indictee’s long period of pre-trial detention.

The Bosnian prosecution has asked that Pasko Ljubicic be detained for a further two months while they continue to adapt the Hague tribunal indictment to that of the local courts.

The Hague indictment charges Ljubicic, a former commander of a Croat defence council (HVO) military police battalion, with crimes against humanity and violation of laws and customs of war.

It is alleged that in 1993 he and other members of his unit took part in an attack on Vitez and surrounding villages.

During this attack, more than a hundred Bosniak civilians were killed, many were detained and tortured, and their property was destroyed. Two mosques were destroyed during the attack on Ahmici village.

Ljubicic was transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague to Sarajevo on September 22. The prosecution has described the process of adapting the indictment as “complicated”.

“The materials we received from The Hague are very voluminous, detailed and complex,” the prosecution claimed, adding that they need “more time to adapt the indictment”.

The indictee should be detained longer, the prosecution argues, due to the “danger of escape” and possible “influence on witnesses or accomplices”.

Branka Praljak, Ljubicic’s defence attorney, believes that the prosecution’s proposal is “unfounded”, and argues that the indictment will not be adapted within two months.

“My defendant has been waiting for a trial for five years now and has not until now shown intent to directly or indirectly influence witnesses or accomplices,” Praljak said.

Ljubicic’s attorney believes that detention “should be brought down to a minimum” if the court “is not able to start the trial as soon as possible”.

“My defendant has the right to a trial in a reasonable time period,” Praljak said.

Ljubicic also addressed the trial chamber and said that he has no intention of running away because he “does not see a solution” in doing so, and that he does not have the “necessary documentation” to escape.

“Not a single prosecutor in the world will be able to bring a witness who will confirm that I harmed him, I would not do that to anyone,” the indictee said, adding that he has no intention of going to the “location where the crime was committed” nor talking to the witnesses.

Once again Ljubicic offered his “mobile and immobile property” as a guarantee that he would return to face trial.

Ljubicic surrendered on November 21, 2001, after which he was transferred to The Hague. Before this, he hid for 14 months in Croatia under the pseudonym Toni Rajic.