Vlahovic: Jewelry taken and threats

Protected witness S22, who lived in Grbavica in 1992 with her family, saw the defendant Vlahovic for the first time standing with another two soldiers in a television video shot at Vraca, but met him in person in June or July of that year. “When I opened the door, he pushed me and came in, took me to one room, and the soldier who came with him took my husband to the kitchen,” recalls witness S22.She said that Batko asked for money from her, but she stashed it in her chest, as she said, and told him there was no money, after which abuse ensued.”First he took out a knife and wanted to cut my ear off, and then asked whether I preferred him to cut my throat from the front or the back of the neck,” said the witness, adding that the defendant wanted to cut off her breast with a knife, and then came to feel the bundle stashed there in which there was around 300-400 Deutschmarks, which he took with him, together with the jewelry she had on her.S22 claims that Vlahovic and the soldier who was with him went to her neighbours and abused them too, after which they took away Ebisa Subasic, who was murdered and never found again.The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charged Vlahovic with murdering and participating in the murder of several persons in the municipalities Grbavica, Vraca and Kovacica, as well as that he took part in the abuse of civilians, from whom he took money and other valuables.Another indictment was brought against Vlahovic, charging him with murders and disappearances of 14 persons, as well as the rape and abuse of civilians.Rasim Torlak, second witness for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina who gave a statement at this hearing, said that the defendant came to his apartment in Grbavica together with one Miro Zdral.Torlak added that the defendant and the other person tried to take him away.”I married my daughter with a Serb who was in the army, so I made it up that my son-in-law who is a colonel knows they are here and that saved me,” said Torlak, adding that the defendant and Zdrale put him in a car and drove him to the intersection at Grbavica, but became scared and ran away from the car in which the witness remained, and after a while the witness fled as well.Witness Torlak added that Vlahovic and Zdrale while back in the apartment, wanted to take the ring from his finger, which the witness refused, to which Zdrale said “cut his finger off if he does not want to take it off”. According to the witness, after that, Batko or Zdrale broke his finger.The trial of Veselin Vlahovic will resume on Thursday, December 29 this year.M.B.