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Tolic Mentioned Subsequently

21. March 2014.00:00
As the trial for crimes in Odzak and Bosanski Brod continues, State Prosecution witnesses say that indictee Josip Tolic beat them, but they did not mention it before, because nobody asked them.

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Marko Grasarevic said that he went from Trnjak village to Novi Grad village, Odzak municipality, adding that he was then taken, along with other local residents, to a school building in Odzak.

“About 750 detainees were held in it. The conditions were horrible. We were beaten and mistreated. We used to sleep on the floor,” Grasarevic said, adding that he remembered guards Josip Tolic, Ivica Kljajic, Ante Golubovic, Jurica Bozic, Ferid and some others.
 
He said that two detainees died due to consequences of beating in the school gym in Odzak.  

“I entered the toilet when I saw Bozic, Golubovic and Tolic hitting Rade Dervenic with their legs in the corridor,” Grasarevic said, adding that the man died later on.

The Defence said that, in his statements given in 2007 and 2013 Grasarevic did not mention indictee Tolic in relation to detainee Rade Dervenic.

“Ferid hit Rade from Novi Grad, whose last name was Tomanovic, with a rifle until the rifle broke into pieces. After that Tolic and Golubovic tied him to a pole and beat him,” the witness said.  

Rifat Konjic, Defence attorney of Tolic, said that, in his previous statements Grasarevic did not even mention letter “T” let alone Tolic’s full last name, when he described Tomanovic’s death. In those statements the witness mentioned Ibrahim Ahmetovic and Ferid Halilovic.

The witness said that he could not remember, adding that perhaps nobody specifically asked him about Tolic.

As he continued testifying, Grasarevic said that the detainees were then transferred from Odzak to Novi Grad, where, as he said, indictee Tolic hit him on his head with a table leg.

The witness did not mention this event in his previous statements. At this hearing he said that he was telling the truth.
 
Josip Tolic, former member of the 102nd Odzak Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with having participated in the abuse of Serb detainees in the Odzak and Bosanski Brod area from May to October 1992.   

Witness Stevo Grasarevic, witness Marko’s son, said that Josip beat him in the school gym in Odzak on three occasions.
The Defence said that, in his two statements given in 1995 and 2013 Stevo Grasarevic did not mention that Tolic beat him personally and that he was alone.

The witness said that nobody asked him about Josip.

Stevo Grasarevic said that, upon their arrival in Brod, they saw that women too were detained in the immediate vicinity of male detainees. Judging by screams and the fact that the women had difficulties walking, as well as stories told by other detainees, the witness concluded that those women were raped.
 
The trial is due to continue on March 28. 

Džana Brkanić


This post is also available in: Bosnian