Presentation of Evidence at Dretelj Trial Completed

The presentation of evidence at the trial for crimes in Dretelj, near Capljina, has been completed with the examination of an additional Srecko Herceg’s Defence witness.

Srecko Bosnjak, a former member of the Croatian Defence Forces, HOS, said that he was in the Dretelj military barracks from July 1 to September 15, 1992, but indictee Srecko Herceg was not there.
 
“He was in Stari Hardomilj, where he trained newly-arrived soldiers, who did not know how to use weapons,” the witness said.
 
Also, he said that he had never heard that the indictee did anything bad during the war and that, as far as he knew, he was a calm person.
 
“Srecko left HOS in late July and joined the Croatian Defence Council, HVO,” Bosnjak said.
 
Herceg, a former member of the HOS, is on trial, along with Ivan Zelenika, Edib Buljubasic, Ivan Medic and Marina Grubisic-Fejzic, with having committed crimes against Serb prisoners in Dretelj in 1992. The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, considers that all of them participated in forcing detainees to perform hard labour and torturing them. Several people died due to consequences of the abuse.
 
According to the charges, Zelenika was a HOS Officer, Herceg was Commander of Dretel, Buljubasic was Deputy Commander, while Medic and Grubisic-Fejzic were guards.
 
Witness Bosnjak said that Dretelj commanders included Sime Martinovic and Mirsad Zahirovic and that Buljubasic took the position over later on. When asked by indictee Buljubasic whether the indictees were the founders of Dretelj, the witness answered negatively.
 
He said that he did not know indictee Grubisic-Fejzic and that he had never heard that she abused or mistreated detainees.
 
The witness said that he was an ordinary HOS soldier and that he injured his arm a few days after having arrived in Dretelj, so he was spared from all duties.   
 
The Defence of the fifth indictee gave up the examination of additional witness Veljo Golubovic, because it did not know his address, but it included, in the case file, an interview Golubovic gave to “Glas Srpske”. The Defence of Ivan Medic also presented an additional piece of evidence, namely a document about the existence of the “Poskok” Unit.
 
The introduction of those pieces of evidence marked the end of the evidence presentation process, which began two-and-a-half years ago.
 
The Prosecution is due to present its closing statement on December 23.