Reading out Erdemovic’s statement in court postponed

Drazen Erdemovic, who pleaded guilty for the execution of men from Srebrenice at the military farm Branjevo and who was convicted by The Hague Trinunal to five years in prison, refused to testify as a prosecution witness.

The defence objected the prosecution’s proposal that Erdemovic’s statements should be read out in the court, because it violates the rights of the accused Aleksandar Cvetkovic for cross-examination.

“The law defines when privileged witness may refuse to testify. Those are cases when he is related to the defendant, when the witness is mentally ill or in some special cases of unavailability, as well as when the witness is deceased,” said the defence attorney Milos Peric.

The prosecution, however, did not give up on reading out Erdemovic’s testimony. They consider that his arrest, having in mind the measures of special protection by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, would cause delay and unnecessary costs.

The trial chamber decided that the statements should be read out, but it won’t give up on the quest for Erdemovic’s address if the defence insists on cross-examination.

Reading out Erdemovic’s testimony, former member of the 10th Reconnaissance Squad of the Bosnian Serb Army, was postponed for the next hearing, because the defence did not receive one of the reports.

The prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Aleksandar Cvetkovic, who was also a member of 10th Reconnaissance Squad of the Bosnian Serb Army, with the killings of over 900 Bosniaks at the military farm at Branjevo.

The trial resumes on March 18.