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Testifying in defence of Zeljko Jukic at the trial for crimes in Prozor, Jukic’s mother says that her son did not commit war crimes.
Anica Jukic said that she used to live in Germany, while Zeljko and her other kids stayed at their grandmother’s in Ometala village, Prozor municipality.
“I do not know into which secondary school Zeljko enrolled, but he did not finish it. He joined us in Germany and worked without a working permit,” Jukic said, adding that she knew her child and that he could not have committed crimes.
Indictee’s brother Josip Jukic then testified about the indictee’s family circumstances. Neither Josip, who was not in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war, nor Jukic’s mother spoke about the wartime period.
They said that Zeljko was always tidy, that he had a short haircut and that he never had longer hair on his neck.
Zeljko Jukic is charged with having participated, along with other members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, and Croatian Army, HV, in the persecution of Bosniak civilians, murders and forced disappearances in Prozor from July to September 1993.
Testifying at this hearing, Pero Kovacevic, a former member of the “Rama” Brigade, who had known Zeljko Jukic from before the war, said that he did not see him during the war. He remembered him as a handsome and tidy man. It was not known to him whether Jukic committed any war crimes.
Fourth Defence witness Ivan Jakovljevic, former member of the Working Squad with the “Rama” Brigade, knew nothing about war crimes committed by indictee Jukic.
Witness Milenko Tomic too was a member of the “Rama” Brigade during the past war. When asked by Defence attorney Irena Pehar where he knew witness S–7 from, he said that he met him during the war.
“He came to my house. He was wounded and scared. He said: ‘Save me’. I dressed a wound on his leg and drove him to hospital,” Tomic said, explaining that it did not occur to him to ask witness S-7 who had wounded him.
Protected witness S–7 testified before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on August 24, 2012 as State Prosecution witness. On that occasion he said that he recognised Zeljko’s voice during an attack on Lapsunj village, when somebody opened fire, while he was running through the woods, and wounded him.
According to the Court’s scheduled, the next hearing in this case is due to be held on September 5.
