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Stankovic: Upper-Class Prison

KPZ Foca

25 December 2009  An eyewitness of Radovan Stankovic’s flight describes what happened in front of the hospital in Foca on May 25, 2007.

Svetislav Peric, who testified for the Defence of Zdravko Vreco, Dragan Masic and Srdjan Vilotic stood on a plateau in front of the hospital in Foca on May 25, 2007. He said he saw a police vehicle for transporting prisoners bringing prisoner Radovan Stankovic to the location.

 

“The vehicle was driven by Miroslav Blagojevic, who took some paper to the hospital, came back and opened the door. I saw Zdravko Vreco as well. Masic was the first one to come out of the vehicle. He then stood in front of the vehicle. Then I saw a prisoner, whose hands were handcuffed, coming out as well. He pushed Masic away and started running towards the town. I saw a white VW Golf parked about ten meters from the police vehicle. Vilotic came out of the vehicle right after Stankovic. It all happened in two or three seconds. Vilotic and Vreco started running after him,” Peric recalled.

 

As he said, there were other people in front of the hospital on that day, who saw what had happened. People started talking about “the way in which Radovan Stankovic fled” a short time later.

 

The State Prosecution charges Vreco, Masic, Vilotic, Ranko Stankovic, Mile Krsmanovic, Miroslav Blagojevic, Miro Prodanovic, Goran Milosevic, Brankica Davidovic and Ranka Dragicevic with having helped Radovan Stankovic flee from the Penal and Correctional Facility in Foca.

 

On May 25, 2007 Radovan Stankovic fled from the Foca prison, to which he had been serving his 20-year sentence, after having been pronounced, by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, guilty of crimes against humanity committed in Foca area during the course of 1992.

 

The indictment alleges that Stankovic was referred from the Foca Facility to a medical examination at the Faculty of Dentistry of the Medical Center in Foca. He ran away in a vehicle provided by his brother Ranko.

 

The Prosecution considers that guards Vreco, Masic and Vilotic, who guarded, accompanied and escorted the convict, “failed to undertake the measures and actions needed for safe escorting of the convicted person”.  

 

The indictment alleges that Miroslav Blagojevic, guard and driver, parked the car, in which the prisoner had been brought to the location, with its doors turned towards the parking lot, instead of the Dentistry Faculty entrance.

 

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Mile Krsmanovic, as Assistant Director for Security with the Security Service of the Foca Facility, with having failed to organize the work of the Service in a way that would prevent Stankovic’s flight. Nikola Perisic, former Director and current employer at the Foca Facility, testified for his defence.

 

Perisic told the Court there was a well-defined hierarchy at the Foca Facility, adding the Director is responsible for making decisions on escorting convicts.

 

“The Security Service is supposed to execute the orders. The Security Service can decide not to escort a convict in case the conditions for it have not been met. When I was the Facility Director, I used to issue written and oral orders. No written orders were issued for escorting people to medical check-ups outside the Facility,” Perisic explained.

 

Perisic said that, during his term as the Director of Foca Facility, “one person fled from the prison during the course of a medical examination”. He said that the convict “jumped through the window and ran away over by crossing the Drina river”.

 

Speaking about Krsmanovic, the witness said he “knowingly performed his function”, adding he was “committed to the service and his job”. He said that, in comparison to other prisons, the Foca Facility was “traditionally an upper-class prison”.

 

The next hearing is due to take place on December 30, when the remaining Defence witnesses and some indictees will be examined.