Kravica: Victim of a great delusion
15 July 2008 The Defence considers that the Prosecution has not managed to prove that Brano Dzinic participated in the genocide in Srebrenica.
Brano Dzinic, one of the 11 persons charged with genocide, and his Defence attorney called upon the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina "to evaluate the evidence in a correct manner" and acquit the indictee of all charges.
Dzinic, former member of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici, is charged, together with nine other members of the same Squad and one member of the Republika Srpska Army, with the shooting of about 1,000 Bosniaks after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.
The indictment alleges that, on July 13, 1995 Dzinic participated in the murder of Bosniaks in a warehouse in Kravica village by throwing bombs, while others were shooting at those people.
"As a human, I feel sorry for the victims, but they will not be satisfied if I am convicted, because I am not the person who did it. In some way I am a victim of the Ministry of Interior of the Republika Srpska. I am also a victim of a great delusion, which was carried by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A man, who is charged by an indictment like this one, cannot be a normal person. I am a normal man. I sleep well as my conscience is clear. I hereby claim, and I can be held responsible for that, that I was mixed up with somebody else. I am not a murderer and I can never be one! I am a completely normal person," Brano Dzinic said.
In his closing arguments, his Defence attorney Borisa Ilic focused on the allegations that the indictee was wrongly accused, only on the basis of a nickname of "Cupo" which was "attributed to him by the Prosecutor." The attorney said that this was not the indictee's nickname.
During the course of the trial, some witnesses said that a person, known as "Cupo" allegedly threw bombs among the detainees, who were held in the warehouse in Kravica.
"The Prosecutor's persistence in trying to prove the existence of that nickname implies that this is a huge mistake. You cannot conceal a nickname. People are often more known by their nicknames than by their first names. Prosecution witnesses, who knew Brane Dzinic, said that his nickname was Dzine or Dzin, while some said that he did not have a nickname at all. The nickname was supposed to link the person, who had thrown bombs, with my client," Ilic said.
The allegations about the nickname were used to "turn this young man into an executioner," the Defence attorney said.
"Brano Dzinic is not a monstrous criminal. From the very beginning he claimed that he was in Sandici, near Kravica, when the crime, charged upon him, was committed. We should repeat his words in this bright hall: 'I did not participate in the killing in Kravica and I was not even present there'," Ilic said, concluding his statement.
The Defence is due to continue presenting its closing arguments at the trial for genocide in Srebrenica on July 16.
Justice Report is a
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local courts; development of the local legal system; and efforts to come to
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Komentari:
da li je?
Poslao: 2009-07-20 22:43:01,
Bio sam sa Branom u vojsci od 92-94. Bio je divan mladić, ni mrava nije zgazio. Nikad ga niko nije zvao ÄŒupo. Ne mogu da verujem da je to on uÄinio...