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Andrun: Verdict Due on August 19

14 August 2008  After the completion of the retrial of Nikola Andrun, the Appellate Chamber schedules announcement of verdict for August 19.

Closing arguments by Defence counsel have been heard in the retrial of Nikola Andrun before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. This concludes the trial. The Appellate Chamber will give its verdict on August 19.

The Defence called on the Chamber to render a decision that would be "based on law, justice and equity" and thus contribute to reconciliation among the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Andrun was sentenced after a first instance verdict announced in December 2006 to 13 years in prison for having participated, as deputy commander of Gabela detention camp, near Capljina, and a member of the "Knez Domagoj" Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, in "mistreatment, beating, murder and inhumane treatment of detained civilians".

Both parties filed appeals, which were upheld by the Appellate Chamber. The Chamber ordered a retrial. 

At the end of the retrial, the indictee addressed the Chamber, saying that, out of 13 counts in the indictment, he only admitted having taken one prisoner from hangar number 2 of Gabela detention camp to the gate of the administrative building, where a group of HVO soliders hit the prisoner with gun butts, which made the prisoner lose consciousness for several days. 

"When I go out of the detention unit, I will personally apologize to the witness I took from hangar number 2. I did that as per an order issued by somebody else, as I was a guard in the detention camp. Had I not executed the order, I might have been killed," Andrun said.

The indictee then referred to allegations that he took three persons out of the hangar. Those persons allegedly never came back and their remains were found after the war. 

"If you consider that I killed those people, feel free to pronounce capital punishment. This crime will be spoken about for a very long time. And this will affect my family," Andrun said in a shaky, tearful voice. 

Defence attorney Hamdo Kulenovic pointed to alleged contradictions between statements given by some witnesses. He specifically referred to the statement given by witness Mirza Colakovic, claiming that he did not recognize the detention location or the part of the detention camp in which he was abused. Kulenovic also said that Colakovic claimed to have been brought to Gabela from Dretelj on September 28, 1993, although Dretelj "was dismantled five days earlier". He wondered about the whereabouts of the witness during these five days. 

Referring to the events that happened in the Police Station in Capljina, where detainees were interrogated and maltreated, the defence attorney said that Andrun "could not have stopped them" as he did not have control over those policemen. 

Kulenovic quoted statements contained in verdicts handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which indicate that "a person who witnesses a crime, but did not participate in it, cannot be considered responsible for that crime".
The defence attorney said the State Prosecution had not managed to prove that Andrun participated in or committed the murders in Gabela detention camp.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina presented its closing arguments on August 13. It called upon the Chamber to sentence the indictee for the sake of "the victims and all of us".