Local Justice – Ahmetasevic: Custody Extended for Two Months

Ahmetasevic is charged with having “fired, without any reason, several bullets at prisoner of war Hasan Saric from an automatic weapon”, following the capture of five members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina who had previously surrendered, in the Omica hill area, Velika Kladusa municipality, on November 11, 1993.Ahmetasevic is a former member of the National Defence with the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region.The indictment alleges that victim Saric died immediately.The indictment against Ahmetasevic was confirmed in July 2010. The trial before the Cantonal Court in Bihac began in late September 2010. After the indictee refused an ex-officio defence attorney, saying he did “not want an attorney from Bosnia and Herzegovina to represent him”, the trial was interrupted.Ahmetasevic wanted to be represented by defence attorneys from the Netherlands at the trial conducted before the Cantonal Court in Bihac. He was arrested in that country in November 2008 and referred to Bosnian judicial institutions for further processing in July 2010.After the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina rejected his request for the appointment of new defence attorneys, the case was referred back to the Cantonal Court in Bihac. Dž.Dž.———————————————————————————————–This article is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID.) The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of Balkan investigative reporting network (BIRN) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.