Witness Says that Indictee Did not Commit Rape

Although witness Zeljko Budimir appeared in court, he did not testify due to his bad health but his statement given to Defence attorney Dusko Tomic on August 15 this year was instead read in the courtroom.
 
The statement indicates that indictee Dragicevic saved the witness, his father and brother from ‘bad people’ in the Digitron Buje building to which men were taken in order to be detained and beaten up. The witness said that the indictee helped other people in Grbavica as well.
 
“I can only say good things about Dragicevic. Had he not been there, neither me, my brother nor my father would have been alive,” the witness said in his statement.
 
Zoran Dragicevic is charged with having robbed and abused the non-Serb population in Grbavica, Vraca and Kovacici and raped one person in the period from May 1992 to December 1994.
 
Witness Budimir said that Dragicevic helped a woman and her son in Grbavica and that he was shocked when he heard that he had been arrested due to committing rape.
 
“I would guarantee with my life that he did not rape anybody. He was very attached to his daughter, as he had waited to get one for so long. He would never do such a thing,” the statement said.
 
The trial is due to continue on September 25.