Basic and Sijak: Greeting the Indictee
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Alihodzic, who testified as Trial Chambers witness, said that he went to Vares in order to finish some errands at the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina Brigade on January 25, 1994 and that person A joined him on that occasion, because she wanted to visit her brother, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, who was detained in the Sumarstvo building.
According to Alihodzic, as he was getting out of the car, he saw indictee Mirsad Sijak and greeted him.
When asked by Trial Chamber Chairwoman Mira Smajlovic whether he drove person A to visit her brother again after that date, as she said during the examination, Alihodzic said that he could not remember.
Basic and Sijak are charged with having raped protected witness A, in collaboration with other unknown soldiers, in a Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina prison situated in the basement of the Sumarstvo building in Vares on January 25, 1994.
Graphologist Esad Bilic was examined as Trial Chambers expert witness at this hearing. He conducted an analysis of indictee Mirsad Sijaks diary in order to determine the real age of the ink used for writing the diary and whether the diary contained any later corrections of dates.
I determined that the original content has not been changed, but I noticed that some previously written text and dates were bolded with a pen, Bilic said.
As said at this hearing, Mirsad Sijaks diary says that the indictee was on an official trip in Kakanj the whole day on January 25, 1994.
Additional Prosecutions material evidence was presented at this hearing as well. Among other things, 15 ICTY documents related to the conflict between the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and HVO were presented with the aim of proving the existence of an armed conflict in that area.
The Defence of indictee Muhidin Basic objected to the relevance of these pieces of evidence, while the Defence of indictee Sijak had no objections.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is due to present its closing statement on December 14 this year.
