Mujcinovic and Hrustic: Clear or Unclear Perpetrators

During the nine-month trial, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina tried to prove that Zurahid Mujcinovic and Sulejman Hrustic committed war crimes in Srebrenik, which is denied by their Defences, who consider the indictment as “unfounded”.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina examined seven witnesses in order to prove that Mujcinovic and Hrustic, former members of the 21th Srebrenik Brigade, which was part of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ABiH), inhumanely treated detained Serb civilians in the Youth Centre building during June and July 1992. To counter the indictment, the Defence called 16 witnesses.

At the request of the Defence, the Trial Chamber allowed for the confrontation of two witnesses of the Prosecution with one witness of the Defence.

According to witnesses, in the spring of 1992, negotiations in the municipality of Srebrenik were held between the authorities and the Serb population regarding their stay in the villages where they constituted a majority. According to testimonies, those who did not accept to stay were detained in the Youth Centre in the village of Rapatnica (Srebrenik).

Among those who refused to stay was Stokan Markovic, who was captured in the woods and taken to the Youth Centre, where he was beaten and abused.

“I do not know who beat me, because two thirds of the time I was in a coma. They gave me some injection in the temple and I couldn’t remember anything,” said Markovic.

He said that before the war he worked with the indictee Zurahid Mujcinovic, whose nickname is Zoran, who played drums. Markovic said that he heard from witness Pero Djukic that Zoran the drummer, burned him with an electric soldering iron.

Brothers Pero and Drago Djukic said that Mujcinovic and Hrustic tortured them in the Youth Centre. According to them, in the summer of 1992, they were captured in the village of Jesenice, where they were hiding.

Witness Pero Djukic said that they took him to one of the rooms in the Youth Centre, pulled out the toolkit, and showed him ‘the tool for extracting eyes’.

Retracting Needles under the Fingernails

“Everyone but Zoka the drummer was masked. One of them took a soldering iron and burned my back, and then they retracted the needle under my fingernails, and when they finished, Zoka the drummer, whose name I later learnt is Zurahid Mujcinovic, put salt on my wounds”, said the witness.

Pero Djukic added that at his departure from the Youth Centre to prison in Tuzla, one guard, whose name was Suad, told him that he could do anything to save him from the beating and that “Zurahid shouldn’t do it”.

Drago Djukic said that Mujcinovic and Hrustic were present in the room at the Youth Centre where they were tortured.

“After the burning with the soldering iron and retracting needles under the fingernails, Mujcinovic gave me a cup of salt and ordered me to drink it all”, said Drago Djukic.

Answering the question of Nedzla Sehic, the defence attorney of the second indictee, about how he knows the name and surname of Sulejman Hrustic, the witness replied that Stokan Markovic told him that.

Witness Blazen Todic confirmed what the Djukic brothers had previously said.

“They took them into the premises on the floor and burned them with a soldering iron. … I was in another room and I heard their screams”, said Todic.

The majority of witnesses of the Defence of the first indictee said that the Youth Centre was a prison for civilians and prisoners of war, which was secured by the Military Police. These witnesses said that they did not saw the indictees in the Youth Centre.

Ismet Imsirovic, former commander of the Guard Department of the Military Police of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ABiH), explained that there were incidents in the Youth Centre, but that the guards did not attend them.

“I saw injuries on the bodies of Lazar Stanisic, Pero and Drago Djukic. Stanisic said that the inspectors burned him with a soldering iron, while the Djukic brothers did not say who inflicted injuries on them”, said Imsirovic.

Eight witnesses of the Defence said that Mujcinovic was not a military policeman, but that he was a member of the Hunting Unit, and that the 21st Mountain Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ABiH) was formed in September 1992.

“The Hunting Unit was disbanded at the end of August 1992, and the majority of its members were demobilized. Mujcinovic was also demobilized and after that I never saw him in any other army”, said Imsirovic.

Some Other Zoka

Given that the indictee Zurahid Mujcinovic was called Zoka by some of the witnesses, the indictee asked Mensur Fazlic, who appeared as witness of the Defence, whether he remembers a certain Huso Bobija, and he answered that he was a military policeman.

“I heard that he also presented himself as Zoka”, said Fazlic.

Acting upon the proposal of the Defence of the first indictee Mujcinovic, the Trial Chamber granted a confrontation between brothers Pero and Drago Djukic and Suad Imsirovic.

Although Pero Djukic during his testimony said that a guard named Suad told him that ‘Zurahid shouldn’t do it’, witness Imsirovic said during the confrontation that he could not recall either Drago or Pero Djukic, claiming that he did not mention Zurahid to anyone.

“I did not know Zurahid by his name, but as Zoran”, said Imsirovic.

During the evidence proceedings, the Defence of the second indictee Hrustic did not call the witnesses because they consider that the witnesses to the first indictee are sufficient to them. They only submitted several pieces of material evidence, according to which Hrustic served in the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina until June 21, 1992.

Upon completion of the evidence proceedings, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina changed the indictment, by dropping one sub-clause in incrimination which is related to the indictee Hrustic.

During the closing arguments, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina emphasised that they consider that the indictees Mujcinovic and Hrustic contributed to the commission of the criminal offence, but they did not specify the duration of the sentence.

The Defences of the indictees emphasised that after the presentation of evidence by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina it remains unclear who the perpetrators of the crime were.

“I am sitting on the dock, but I’m innocent and I expect the acquittal”, said the first indictee Mujcinovic.

Nędzla Sehic, the defence attorney of the second indictee, requested the acquittal of Sulejman Hrustic.

“There is only one piece of evidence which charges Hrustic and that is the testimony of Drago Djukic, who could not exactly say how he was tortured by my client”, said the defence attorney Sehic.

The pronouncement of the verdict is scheduled for October 2.