State Prosecution Presents Statements Given by Members of Mice Paramilitary Formation

The state prosecution has charged Dragan Marjanovic, Sasa Gavranovic, Vitomir Devic, Zoran Sljuk, Dragomir Kezunovic and Dario Slavuljica with taking 28 detained non-Serb civilians from a Teslic police station and the nearby Pribinic prison to Mount Borje on the night of June 17 and 18, 1992. There, the defendants allegedly killed them.

According to the charges, Marjanovic was the commander of the First Squad of the military police of the Teslicka Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army. The other defendants were members of that squad as well as members of the “Mice” paramilitary formation.

At today’s hearing, prosecutor Dzermin Pasic presented statements given by the defendants. He said the statements were written on paper in July 1992, and were found in the apartment of Andrija Bjelosevic. Bjelosevic was previously arrested on suspicion of having committed war crimes in Teslic. Pasic didn’t specify whether all of the defendants wrote such statements.

The trial chamber partially accepted the “Mice” file, which the state prosecution had obtained from the Hague Tribunal. The file contains evidence collected during proceedings conducted in Teslic during the war. It included the statements of the defendants.

Marjanovic’s defense attorney, Milan Romanic, said his client’s statement was not in the file.

Trial chamber chair Vesna Jesenkovic said she would admit the evidence, only in the context of a criminal proceeding which was previously conducted against the paramilitary formation.

“Not in the context of the content of individual statements,” Jesenkovic explained.

The trial chamber refused to accept statements given by witnesses at the Hague Tribunal. Jesenkovic told Pasic he could examine the witnesses later on during the trial and read statements given by those who had died in the meantime.

The trial will continue on December 17. Marjanovic’s defense will begin presenting evidence at the next hearing.