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The presentation of evidence at the retrial of Sefik Alic before the Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina was completed with the playing of the last witness statement given at the main trial.
The Defence and Prosecution are due to present their closing arguments on January 10, 2011.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has charged Alic, former Assistant Commander of the Hamza Battalion with the Fifth Corps of ABiH, with participating in the abuse of captured members of the Serbian Krajina Army in August 1995 and failing to initiate an investigation or punish the persons responsible for the murder of four prisoners.
The indictment alleges that the murders were committed by Tewfik Al Harbi, a citizen of Saudi Arabia and former voluntary member of the Hamza Battalion.
In April 2008 a first instance verdict was pronounced, acquitting Alic of all charges. The State Prosecution filed an appeal over substantive violations of the criminal proceedings and criminal code provisions, as well as wrongly and incompletely determined facts.
The indictee’s Defence objected to the Prosecution’s appeal, claiming it was “groundless”, but the Appellate Chamber upheld it and ordered a retrial, which began in April 2010.
