Koricanske stijene: Defence Witnesses Fail to Appear

Vesna Jasenkovic, Chairwoman of the Trial Chamber at the trial for crimes committed at Koricanske stijene, said that the Defence witnesses “were duly informed”, but they failed to appear in the courtroom.

“None of the three Defence witnesses has come to the hearing today. (…) My associates confirmed to me that the court summons had been properly sent by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have not checked by phone whether the persons received the summons, because we do not have their phone numbers,” Judge Jasenkovic said.

The Defence of indictee Sasa Zecevic said that it had not examined or contacted these witnesses before, because it did not have their phone numbers, but only the addresses.

“You must inform them for the sake of the indictees, who are held in detention. (…) I thought the Defence would be more expeditious. I do not know how you think you can make sure that witnesses will appear if you do not contact them,” Jasenkovic said, asking the Defence of the first indictee if it thought that its approach was “non-serious”.

Radovan Stanic, Zecevic’s Defence attorney, said that “the approach does not seem non-serious” to him, adding that the Defence wanted to examine the witnesses in relation to their previous statements.

Sasa Zecevic, Radoslav Knezevic, Petar Civcic, Branko Topola and Marinko Ljepoja are charged with helping escort a convoy of more than 1,200 civilians, who left Prijedor on August 21, 1992.

The indictment alleges that, while escorting the convoy to Travnik, they selected about 200 men on Mount Vlasic and killed them at Koricanske stijene.

“They escorted the separated men to that location and brought them to the edge of the road, above a chasm. Indictees Marinko Ljepoja and Branko Topola, as well as other members of the First Police Interventions Squad, then shot at them from an automatic gun, killing more than 200 civilians,” the indictment alleges.

In the mentioned period Sasa Zecevic and Radoslav Knezevic were members of the Public Safety Service in Prijedor, Petar Civcic was Commander of the First Police Interventions Squad with the Public Safety Service in Prijedor, Marinko Ljepoja was a member of the Squad and Branko Topola was a guard in the Trnopolje detention camp.

The trial of the five indictees began in November 2009, after they pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A.M.A.