Indictee Requests Exemption of Prosecutor Vesna Budimir

Following the reading of the indictment and presentation of State Prosecution’s introductory statements at the trial for crimes on Mount Igman, Hadzici, indictee Dzevad Salcin requests exemption of Prosecutor Vesna Budimir, claiming that “both the indictment and witnesses’ statements have been fabricated”.

“I am saying that this indictment would not have been filed, if foreign prosecutors had been around.

However, Prosecutor Vesna Budimir has to justify the three years I have spent in detention, as an innocent person, for crimes in Trusina, so ‘anything will do’. I am requesting the exemption of Prosecutor Budimir. She has done so much harm to me,” Dzevad Salcin said.

According to Salcin, the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina should deal with the exemption request.

In a separate case Salcin and Hodzic are on trial, along with four other persons, for crimes committed in Trusina, near Konjic.

Prior to the exemption request, the Prosecutor read the indictment, according to which Hodzic and Salcin, former members of “Zulfikar” Special Purposes Squad, committed war crimes against the civilian population and war crimes against prisoners of war on Mount Igman.

“After having returned to Stupnik locality on Mount Igman on an undetermined date in 1993, Nedzad and Dzevad hit four prisoners with their legs, batons and rifle butts. After that they took two of them to a hut and showed them a beaten prisoner, who was lying on the ground, telling them that they would end up in the same way,” Budimir said.

The Prosecutor said that Nedzad Hodzic ordered persons B and C to come to his office in “Mraziste” hotel, where he broke person B’s ‘cheek bone and set fire on person’s C arms and other body parts, causing burns on his skin.”

“While they were in ‘Mraziste’ hotel huts, Nedzad ordered persons B and C to perform a fellatio and then ordered person C to put person B’s penis into his mouth and vice versa,” the Prosecutor said.

Also, according to the charges, on an undetermined date in 1993 Nedzad Hodzic and other members of his Unit took Jadranko Glavas out of a detention facility on Mount Igman. They then hit Glavas with steel sticks until he died. After that the indictee threatened other detainees by telling them that they would “end up just like Jadranko”.

The Prosecutor read two counts referring to Dzevad Salcin only. According to those counts, the indictee cut a detainee’s ear and forced a few detainees to sing “Chetnik songs before hitting them with his shoes”.

“In May 1993 Salcin ordered Dragan Vukovic to get off a transporter on Mount Igman and cut his ear off,” Budimir said.

While presenting her introductory statement, the Prosecutor said that the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina would prove that Hodzic and Salcin were members of “Zulfikar” Special Purposes Unit and that the Unit’s Command was situated in “Mraziste” hotel “on Mount Igman and that detainees were mistreated at that locality”.

“Detainees will testify via video link. They will describe what they survived. We will not see some of them, because they have since died,” Budimir said.

She said that the persons, who were subjected to mistreatment, have changed physically to a significant extent and that they still had scars caused by the trauma they experienced.

“They deserve justice. We, in this courtroom, are their voice,” the Prosecutor said.

The Defence of Nedzad Hodzic said that it would request an expert examination of the indictee, because it considered that the previous examination was not conducted under adequate circumstances.

“He does not understand the indictment. Towards the end of the war half of his head was shattered to pieces. He can neither count nor read. He will defend himself by silence until a complete expert examination has been completed,” said Defence attorney Nedzla Sehic.

Also, she said that she hoped that, “this time” the Prosecution would “conceptualise its evidence so it conclusively says that Nedzad is the perpetrator of the crimes charged upon him”.

“None of the injured parties from Trusina accused Hodzic, except those who admitted having participated in the crimes and reached agreements,” Sehic explained. 

The trial, which was interrupted due to the request for exemption of Prosecutor Budimir, will continue once a decision concerning the request has been made.