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Kurtovic Evidence Concluded

24 April 2008  With the examination of an additional Defence witness, the trial in the BiH State Court against Zijad Kurtovic has concluded. .

The presentation of evidence in the case against Zijad Kurtovic, charged with crimes committed in All Saints Church in Donja Dreznica in Herzegovina, has concluded with the examination of an additional defence witness. The trial in the BiH State Court has lasted eight months so far.

Witness Sedin Mahmic said that Kurtovic did not participate in the sexual maltreatment of detained Croats in All Saints Church in October 1993.

He said that on the night of October 3, 1993 he and a few other soldiers had gone to the church "to see how the rebels were doing". He said that a person named Zijo, "a member of the Handzar Division" and Hasan Delic from Dreznica were in the church that night. He said he stayed in front of the church.

"I know that they told one man to lie down and to roll like an animal, like a crocodile. At the entrance Delic forced two detainees to have oral sex with each other, while he was cursing their rebel mother. He told one prisoner to take his trousers off. I told them to leave him alone and, as I could not watch any longer, I left the place," Mahmic said, adding that the Special Purpose Unit of the General Staff of the BiH Army, to which he belonged, came to Dreznica "just to have some fun" that day. 

The State Prosecutor charges Kurtovic with having maltreated civilians and prisoners of war who were detained in All Saints Church, in the second half of 1993. Among other things, he and Hasan Delic allegedly forced two detained members of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) to have oral sex with each other.

The Prosecution contends that Kurtovic was commander of the Military Police Squad with the Dreznica Independent Battalion of the BiH Army at the time.

The witness said that, while the detainees were maltreated, Kurtovic was "nowhere near the church" because, as he said, "Zijo was not a man who would be interested in going to church to maltreat somebody."

"I was in Dreznica when they brought the prisoners. I saw members of the Handzar Division of the Army of BiH kicking them a bit. Nihad Bojadzic, commander of the Special Purpose Squad ordered them to take them to the church and said that the Civil Protection Unit, which was composed of the elderly, was to guard them," Mahmic said.

Mahmic also said that his Unit was "dominant" over the other units in that area and that other units would have "faced problems" if they have done something which was not in line with their orders.

At the end of the evidence presentation, the BiH Prosecutor "specified the indictment". The Defence will respond at the next hearing scheduled for April 29.