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Testifying at the trial of Jasmin Sehagic for crimes in Kakanj, two Defence witnesses say that the indictee treated detainees who were held in the Brown Coal Mine directorate building in Kakanj, in “a correct and protective” manner.
Witness Rudolf Belkic said that he was brought to the Mine building, where a number of Croats had already been brought before, in 1993.
“I was in a room on the ground floor together with many other people. At some point a member of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina came to the window, grabbed me by my neck through the bars, pulled a knife out, showed me an HVO emblem and asked me what it was. I got scared. I said I did not know. He cursed my Ustasha mother, tore my shirt and began cutting my skin. The indictee came from his back and began yelling at him, telling him I was not guilty of anything. The soldier got scared and left,” Belkic said.
Belkic told the Court that he stayed in the Directorate building for one day only before being released.
“Sehagic saved me, but I do not know about the others, who stayed in the building for a longer time,” Belkic said.
According to the charges, Sehagic, former Manager of a detention facility in the old Directorate of the Brown Coal Mine in Kakanj, participated in the torture of Croat detainees.
The Zenica Cantonal Prosecution alleges that Sehagic failed to undertake the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent the torture and report the perpetrators of the torture to his superiors, so that the perpetrators would be punished.
Second Defence witness Zeljko Benic said that he was detained in the period from June 9 to 14, 1993 and that Sehagic treated him in a correct manner.
“He enabled visits by my wife and daughter, so I felt safe when he was around. There was a psychological pressure, as we were in a hard wartime situation, but there was no physical mistreatment. My wife’s brothers were held with me. They stayed longer, but they did not mention having been mistreated. I do not know if somebody did that to others, but I know how I was treated,” Benic said.
The trial is due to continue on December 11 this year.
