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Mediha Cupina, who testified as additional Prosecution witness at the trial for crimes committed in eastern Herzegovina, told the Court that indictee Krsto Savic came to her house and shot at her furniture, while Mileta Mucibabic searched her phonebook.
“I lived with my husband and two children in our family house in Nevesinje. My brother-in-law and his wife lived in the other part of the house. I heard some noise coming from their part of the house. I went to their apartment crossing the joint balcony. I saw Mile searching a phonebook, while Kico was
holding a gun,” the witness said.
She explained that Kico was Krsto Savic’s nickname, adding that Mileta was actually Milko Mucibabic. She said that she had known the two men from before, adding that their relationship was friendly prior to the war.
The Prosecution charges Savic and Mucibabic with crimes against humanity committed in Nevesinje, Kalinovik, Bileca and Gacko. Indictee Savic was chief of the Safety Services Center in Trebinje and Mucibabic was policeman in Nevesinje.
The indictees are charged with unlawful detention, torture, rape, forcible disappearances, willful destruction of property, causing severe suffering and intimidating and terrorizing people.
Witness Cupina said that “Kico then came to her part of the house and shot at her cupboard”.
“My daughter and her friend came and started begging him not to do it. They thought he was going to kill me. He put his gun away and said: ‘A Serb would not kill a woman!’,” the witness said, adding that this incident happened in June 1992.
Shortly after the incident Cupina left Nevesinje and went to Montenegro.
Second Prosecution witness Munevera Rahimic was former judge with the Higher Court in Mostar.
“I attended exhumations in Gacko, Nevesinje, Mostar West and Capljina. I particularly remember the exhumation conducted in Canja village, near Nevesinje, because the bodies were buried very deep down,” witness Rahimic said.
The indictment alleges that members of the Public Safety Station in Nevesinje participated in an attack on Canje village, in Nevesinje municipality, on June 16, 1992. It further alleges that, on this occasion,
nine civilians were killed. After that they were buried in a joint grave, with the help of a construction machine.
The Defence did not have any questions for the witness, objecting due to the fact that the State Prosecution presented new pieces of evidence in the course of additional evidence presenting, instead of denying the Defence’s evidence.
The Trial Chamber responded by saying that it had already rejected the objection, adding that it rejected it once again.
