Shooting at Prisoners

Witness Sulejman Zahirovic, former member of the Third Squad with the First Brigade of the National Defence of the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region, ND WBAR, said that, looking from a trench about 20 metres away, he saw that Mujagic shot a captured member of the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina on his chest and another prisoner between his legs.  

“I do not know who captured them. Our comrade Fikret Topcagic, whose body we were supposed to evacuate, was killed about ten minutes before Sulejman killed the prisoner. While I was in the trench, I saw that Sulejman shot at them. After that the first prisoner fell down. He did not move any more. He shot the other one on his legs. I could no longer watch that,” Zahirovic said.

Mujagic is charged with having killed a captured member of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and wounded another one in the Kumarica region, Velika Kladusa municipality, on March 6, 1995.

The indictment alleges that, after having captured and physically abused members of the 505th Brigade of the Fifth Corps, Mujagic killed Ekrem Baltic and wounded Nisvet Cordic by shooting at them from an automatic gun.

Testifying at this hearing, Defence witnesses Fadil Alagic, Dervis Mustedanagic and Osman Omanovic, former members of the Third Squad with the First Brigade of ND WBAR, said that indictee Sulejman Mujagic was commander of their Squad in 1995.
 
Witnesses Mustedanagic and Omanovic said that they were not direct witnesses of the murder in March 1995, but they said that they were surprised to hear that Mujagic was charged, because he “treated both soldiers and civilians in a fair manner.”

Fadil Alagic said that he remembered the day, when two members of the Fifth Corps were captured.

According to his testimony, nobody killed the captives, but they were wounded. He said that one of them died after having been wounded.

“I was standing next to Hamzo Kekic’s stable. I could see the man, who was lightly wounded, carrying the severely wounded man. One of our men, whom we called Tajso and whose real name I do not know, told him to stand still. He dropped the wounded colleague. Considering the fact that he too was wounded, he could not stand still, so Tajso began beating him,” Alagic said.

When asked by Trial Chamber Chairman Reuf Kapic if he knew what happened to the surviving prisoner later on, Alagic responded negatively.

The trial of Mujagic is due to be continued on November 5.