Koricanske stijene: First Indictee Fails to Appear
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Slavica Bajic, Defence attorney of indictee Babic, said that he could not sit in the courtroom for long due to his health condition.
“He can follow the trial, but he is not physically fit enough to sit in the courtroom for so long,” Bajic said, proposing to the Court to hear video recordings of the witnesses’ statements given during the first instance trial in Babic’s absence.
Mirko Bozovic, Chairman of the Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that such behaviour was unacceptable, adding that the trial could not be conducted in the absence of one of the indictees.
“If Babic comes here and says that he will not attend the trial, we can decide to proceed with the trial in his absence. However, in legal terms, continuing the trial in the absence of the indictee in this particular situation is not possible,” Bozovic said.
The retrial of Zoran Babic, Milorad Skrbic, Dusan Jankovic and Zeljko Stojnic, former members of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor, began on February 24, 2012.
Under the first instance verdict, Babic and Skrbic were sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment each and Stojnic was sentenced to 15 years for the murder of more than 150 male Bosniak civilians at Koricanske stijene on August 21, 1992. Jankovic was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
In October 2011 the Appellate Chamber revoked the first instance verdict related to Babic, Skrbic, Stojnic and Jankovic and ordered a retrial.
The trial has been postponed until March 9, 2012.
