Witness Recalls Discussion with Basic

Zvonko Bakovic said he knew Basic from before the wart since he worked in the police, and that he saw him once in a yard in the village of Vardiste with Luka Sestan and Mirko Letic, who were later found dead.
 
“Passing by Luka Sestan’s house I saw Basic holding an automatic rifle. He stood behind the other two. Mirko ducked to tie his shoelaces and Basic said: ‘Faster, faster’. I heard nothing else. He saw me and asked who gave me permission to move around. Then Sabahudin Kolic came and told me to send my wife and children to safety, which I did. I later learned the two men were burned and killed,” said Bakovic.
 
The Prosecution charges Basic, a former member of the Bosnian Army, with unlawfully taking two civilians from their homes in Vardiste village in April 1993, whose burned bodies were later uncovered.
 
Basic objected to the testimony of the witness claiming he never saw him before or during the war, but that he sees him now from time to time and greets him as he believed Bakovic was a “displaced Bosniak.”
 
Asked by the Defence team, whether it was possible he saw Samir Kolic that day, the witness replied it was not and that he saw his brother Sabahudin.
 
Bakovic also said he did not say anything during the investigation about talking to the defendant in the yard, because he wasn’t asked by the investigators.
 
The Defence objected to this witness testimony, claiming it was “considerably different than all other witness testimonies.”
 
The trial continues on February 2.