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Pincic: Polygraph Testing and Hypnosis

Zrinko Pincic

02 December 2009  Indictee Zrinko Pincic breaks down in tears when telling the Appellate Chamber he did not commit the crime for which he was sentenced, by a first-instance verdict, to nine years in prison, adding that he loved protected witness A.

"All the things that are done against me are a setup. I lived with person A for three months. I wanted to leave my wife and kids because of her. This is how much I loved her. She should be ashamed accusing an innocent man. I did not do that. I did not, did not. The truth will come out eventually. I am asking for a polygraph test, I am asking for hypnosis...whatever you have - I will agree to do anything. I will die because of hypnosis, but I want to take the shame from me and my family," Zrinko Pincic said at the hearing at which appeals were presented.

The former secretary with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, in Hrasnica with "Herceg Stjepam" Brigade based in Konjic, was sentenced, by the first-instance verdict, to nine years in prison for war crimes against civilians committed in Konjic Municipality. Pincic was found guilty of having forced witness A, who was among other Serb civilians detained in Done selo village, Konjic Municipality, to have sexual intercourse with him on several occasions from November 1992 to March 1993.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina appealed the first-instance verdict calling for a longer sentence.

"The Prosecution considers that the sentence is not adequate bearing in mind the committed crime and the consequences arising from it. The Court should take into consideration that one life has been destroyed," Prosecutor Vesna Budimir said, adding that the Court wrongly interpreted some circumstances as mitigating. Those included, among others, the fact that the indictee was a family man. "Witness A had the right to have a family. She did not establish one, mainly thanks to Pincic".

The Defence of the indictee called on the Appellate Chamber to revoke the first-instance verdict and order a retrial, arguing that Criminal Proceedings and Criminal Code provisions have been violated. It also considers that facts have been wrongly determined.

"The indictee cannot be a member of the HVO, because it is an executive civilian body - it was not a military unit. HVO Hrasnica could not have operated as part of the 'Herceg Stjepan' Brigade. This is absurd. These are facts that cannot be changed. Nobody can change them," Velimir Maric, Defence attorney of the indictee, said.

Maric made a detailed review of the statements given by three Prosecution witnesses, who, as alleged in the indictment, were detained in the same house in 1992 and 1993.

"It has not been proved that this was a detention camp and that those people were forced to be there. Everybody lived in an equal way - both the Serbs and the Croats. If rapes were committed, it should have been treated as common rape and not as a war crime. Whether the rape itself was committed is disputable," the Defence attorney said.

Maric mentioned that the trial of Pincic "was not done correctly", because the Trial Chamber Chairwoman "played the role of Prosecutor, in order to support the allegations made by the Prosecution" during the examination of witnesses. He claimed that she was not neutral.

During the course of evidence presentation Maric asked for the exemption of Minka Kreho, Chairwoman of the Trial Chamber, but the Crime Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina rejected his request "as inadmissible".

The Appellate Chamber will render its decision concerning the appeals at a later stage.