Indictees Deliberate Participants in Attack against Civilians

Prosecutor Dzevad Muratbegovic said that a widespread and systematic attack was conducted against the civilian population in Visegrad. He said that crimes were committed within that attack and that the indictees were “aware of the attack and deliberately participated in it”. 

“They were present in the Visegrad area the whole time, while detention of the local population was underway. As they knew many of them, they could know that their detention was unfounded. They could not have possible not been aware of the attack, considering its scope,” Prosecutor Muratbegovic said. 

Milisavljevic, Pantelic and Tasic are charged with having participated in murders, forced resettlement of more than 500 Bosniak civilians from the Visegrad area and other inhumane acts. 

The Prosecution alleges that Milisavljevic and Pantelic participated in the murders of several tens of Bosniaks near the Paklenik pit, Sokolac municipality.

Analysing testimony by a witness, who said that he was sexually abused, just like one more person, during the course of his detention, the Prosecutor said that the witness identified Milisavljevic as the person who forced him to do that.

“The second witness did not even know Milisavljevic. What they survived was a painful and bothersome experience. Differences between their statements are normal, considering the situation in which they were,” the Prosecutor said.

He said that the Trial Chamber should trust the witness, who said that Pantelic hit him, as well as those, who said that the indictee participated in the arrests and setting houses on fire.

“Pantelic was a part of the group, whose members took civilians away. Witnesses clearly described his movements among the group of soldiers and his actions. Witnesses spoke about setting houses on fire. On the basis of several statements, it can be concluded that Pantelic participated in depriving people of liberty and burning of houses,” he said.

Speaking about the resettlement of several hundreds of Bosniaks in June 1992, Muratbegovic said that their resettlement was not voluntary and that Tasic played “a key role” in that. 

“Civilians could not leave the convoy until they reached Visegrad. Policemen were present in the buses and prevented them from getting off. When they arrived at Isceric Brdo, women and children were told to get off the bus. The bus passengers were civilians. They were neither armed nor uniformed,” the Prosecutor said, adding that the indictees participated, as co-perpetrators, in the resettlement of the Bosniak population.

The Prosecutor said that Milisavljevic and Pantelic participated in murders of men near the Paklenik pit and that the Court should trust a statement given by the only survivor of that shooting. 

“When deciding about the sentence for Pantelic and Milisavljevic, we propose that the Court consider the number of the resettled persons, the number of the persons killed next to Paklenik pit, as well as the mental pain and suffering of the resettled families and families of the killed men,” Mutarbegovic said. 

The Defence teams are due to begin presenting their closing statements on August 26.