Terzic: Car Accident as Alibi

“I remember the ride, because we had a car accident on our way to Pozega. Marija Mihalj and a friend of hers, a refugee from Bosnia and Herzegovina, were in the car with me. The friend’s name was Albina Terzic, but we called her Nina,” the witness said.

Mandic said that he knew Albina, as a friend of Marija’s, superficially.

“I saw her a couple of times, when we were in the company of other people. She stayed at Marija’s place, but I never asked her where she had come from. I knew that she had left Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the witness said, adding that he remembered that Nina went back to her family in Bosnia one day after the accident.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Albina Terzic, known as Nina, former member of the military police with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, with having participated in the inhumane treatment of Serb civilians, who were unlawfully held in the school building and Strolit factory in Odzak, from May to July 1992.

According to the charges, Terzic used to hit prisoners on their necks with a police stick, encouraged a dog to attack them, torture, humiliated and insulted them in various ways, including by forcing prisoners to have sex with a mentally ill person.

Responding to State Prosecution’s questions, Mandic said that he saw Nina for the first time one month prior to the accident, adding that he had never contacted her since her departure from Kutjevo.

“I remember that she was a small, skinny girl. She always wore jeans. Her hair was tied into a ponytail. She was never dressed in uniform,” the witness said. He recognised the indictee in the courtroom, saying that he drove her by his car and that he knew her as Albina Terzic.

The trial is due to continue on April 24, 2012, when two additional State Prosecution witnesses will testify via video link.