Kovac: Meeting with the indictee
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Psychiatrist Kadrija Sabic-Karacic, an associate of the “Medica” Women’s Association, claims that witness A’s health deteriorated, after having seen Ante Kovac in the vicinity of her house.
“We spoke over the phone. She told me that she had seen Kovac near her house. This upset her, she threw up and she could not sleep the following night,” Sabic-Karacic said, testifying as Prosecution witness.
The State Prosecution charges Ante Kovac, known as Zabac, as commander of the Military Police Squad with Vitez Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, with having raped witness A, who was detained in the Cultural House in Vitez.
The indictment alleges that Kovac intimidated witness A, by telling her that she would “never see her kids again”. He allegedly “examined her, asking her where her husband was and where the weapons were hidden in Mahala settlement”. After that he slapped her on the face.
The indictment further alleges that he ordered her, while holding a gun in his hand, to take her clothes off. When she refused to do that, he ripped her clothes off and committed the rape.
Witness A testified at the hearing held on September 23, which was closed to the public.
Dr Sabic-Karacic said that witness A had gone through “a medium level of mental suffering” caused by the rape. She also mentioned some other symptoms, which are usual for raped women, such as “a feeling that the person is filthy and different from others, as well as an aversion towards sex”.
Sabic-Karacic told the Trial Chamber that she visited Vitez in 1993, as a member of “Doctors without Frontiers” project, claiming that, as far as she knew, witness A was the only person who had been raped in Old Vitez.
The public was excluded during a part of cross-examination of this witness. When the session was opened to the public again, international judge Snezhana Botusharovana said that she objected the way the cross-examination was conducted, but no further details were provided.
The trial is due to continue on October 6.
