Prosecution Wants Safet Kovacevic to Remain in Prison

The prosecutor, Dragan Corlija, requested the extension of custody because the suspect is a flight risk.

“The suspect has citizenship of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He lives solely in Croatia, although his family resides in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because of his occasional jobs, he changes his places of residence and work. He was presented with depositions from certain witnesses and he was acquainted with the fact that he could be convicted to a sentence of between ten years and a long prison sentence. In case he leaves the territory, Croatia would not be able to extradite its citizen,” said Corlija.

He added that, besides Kovacevic, the prosecution conducted an investigation against seven more people, but that only he was proposed to be remanded in custody.

“The prosecution plans to end the investigation in two months time and make its prosecutorial decision,” said Corlija.

Safet “Pape” Kovacevic is suspected, as a member of the military police of the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, (ABiH), of committing a war crime against civilians and Serb prisoners.

Semso Numanovic, the suspect’s lawyer, said that the fact that Kovacevic has dual citizenship is not a reason enough to place him in custody.

“He is not to blame for the fact that the two countries failed to sign a bilateral agreement on the extradition of suspects for certain acts. He has a house in Vikici, a wife and three children, he regularly visits them and they have an intimate relationship,” said Numanovic.

The defence proposed the real estate owned by the suspect, who was arrested on October 25, as a guarantee.

Kovacevic said the prosecutor’s claim that he was arrested when he came home for Bajram were not true – he had come before that to see his sick father and he had witnesses who could confirm that he did not go to Croatia for four months.

Lawyer Numanovic said that the suspect may be liable to answer only for a “brief event”, “the twenty-minute long incident in the bus which transported prisoners of war and some civilians.”

“You can even see on the photograph that the plaintiffs may have suffered slight bodily injuries, and nothing indicates that there were severe injuries, torture, great suffering, intensive fear or that someone lost their life. Prisoners were earlier held in other prisons or similar facilities. It is quite possible that they suffered some of those bodily injuries earlier,” said Numanovic.

The court will make its decision at a later date.