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State Prosecutor Dubravko Campara read the statements given by Nikola Stojanovic, Branislav Kalas and Marinko Kos, former members of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, who said during the course of the investigation that members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, captured and beat them.
Mehura Selimovic, Adil Ruznic and Emir Mustafic are charged with having supported and abetted the detention of civilians and members of the Republika Srpska Army and police in detention centers in Bihac, Cazin and Bosanski Petrovac from February 1994 to February 1996.
The indictment alleges that Selimovic was Counter-intelligence Officer, Operational Officer and Deputy Chief of the Military Safety Service Section with the Fifth Corps, Ruznic was Assistant Commander for Security and Operational Officer with the same Section and Mustafic was a member of the Military Police Unit with the Fifth Corps.
In his statement given in February 2008, Nikola Stojanovic said he was captured, together with a few other comrades, by members of the ABiH’s Fifth Corps in a forest near Bihac in September 1995. He said he was then taken to the “27. juli” military barracks, where he was beaten up and questioned.
“I was questioned four times. I answered Ruznic’s questions in writing. He was not satisfied with my answers, so he told the guards to beat me in order to get answers from me. They carried out his orders,” Stojanovic said at the time.
The Defence teams said that Stojanovic’s statement was not true or authentic, because it contradicted other witnesses’ statements and also because “the investigator suggested answers to him”.
In his statement given in March 2008, Branislav Kalas said he was captured by members of the Fifth Corps who first detained him in Bihac and then Cazin, where he was “examined by Mehura”.
At that time he said that his journey to the exchange point was the worst experience, because ABiH members hit him with rifle butts, legs and hands.
“They continued beating us until we arrived in Luke prison in Bihac, where the exchange was supposed to take place. The skin on my back was cracked because I was hit so many times,” Kalas said.
Marinko Kos, the third deceased Prosecution witness, said in his statement, given on May 20, 2005, that after having been captured, he was mostly kept in the “27. juli” military barracks in Bihac, where he was received by “officer Ruznic”.
“I was taken to a room where I saw 20 other VRS soldiers. Members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina beat us up in the room. The beating lasted for 15 days,” Kos said at the time.
Witness Sretko Susic was due to be examined at this hearing, but he refused to appear in the courtroom because he considers that having to speak about the wartime happenings again would lead to deterioration of his health state.
The Trial Chamber ordered a psychiatrist to conduct an assessment of Susic. It will then decide whether he will be called to testify.
The trial is due to continue on November 18, when another Prosecution witness will be examined.
A.S.
