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NEXT WEEK: Plea hearing for four Srebrenica indictees

19 January 2007  The Court of BiH has scheduled a plea hearing for four Bosnian Serbs indicted for participation in Srebrenica massacres for next week. This will be the fourth time the indictees will be called to enter their plea.

Zdravko Bozic, Mladen Blagojevic, Zeljko Zaric and Zoran Zivanovic are scheduled to appear at a plea hearing on January 24.

The four Bosnian Serbs charged with crimes in the aftermath of the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, will also undergo a medical examination on orders of the Trial Chamber.

Their plea hearing has already been postponed three times, due to indictee’s claim of illness after days of hunger strike, in which they joined a group of dozens of prisoners who are requesting that ex-Yugoslav law, which is considered more lenient than current BiH legislation, be applicable in their cases.

The Strikers are refusing to appear in court, but the Court continues to schedule hearings unless the reason for the indictee’s absence is illness.

The group of four former members of the Bratunac Light Infantry Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska Military Police, are charged with 12 counts of crimes committed against the Bosniak civilian population in the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica.

The beginning of the trial of Zeljko Mejakic, Dusan Fustar, Dusko Knezevic and Momcilo Gruban was postponed several times in the last couple of weeks, too. Last time it was postponed because the defence attorney of one of the indictees was ill.

However, the court decided to schedule next hearing for January 24 when, depending on defence attorney presence, will be decided if the trial will start or not next week.

The Prosecution has charged the four with participation in the beating, torturing, rape and murders of camp inmates in Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje detainment camps.

During his opening statement, Prosecutor Peter Kidd announced that he will prove through witness testimonies that Zeljko Mejakic had “immense authority” as warden of Omarska detainment camp, where Momcilo Gruban, nicknamed ‘Ckalja,’ was commander of a guard shift.

Dusan Fustar was one of three commanders of the guard in Keraterm detention camp, while Dusko Knezevic, according to witnesses, freely came to the detainment camps and participated in the physical and psychological abuse of detainees.

The Prosecutor announced that he will question multiple witnesses, mostly former detainees, and four witnesses who were not detainees but who will describe the events that took place in Prijedor during 1992.

The presentation of evidence by the defence attorneys of Zoran and Goran Damjanovic, who are charged with beating a group of Bosniaks in the Sarajevo suburb of Bojnik in 1992, will be continued on Monday, January 22nd.

The trial of Gojko Jankovic, who is charged with crimes committed against Bosniak civilians committed in Foca municipality, will be continued one day later, on Tuesday January 23rd, as well as on Friday January 26th.

After the Defence had finished questioning witnesses, the Prosecution proposed to question seven additional witnesses and one court expert, which the Court approved.

Among others, Neuropsychiatrist Amra Bravo Mehmedbasic will appear as an additional Prosecution witness and speak about Stockholm syndrome.

“During cross examination of some Defence witnesses, some of them claimed that protected witnesses 191 and 186, both rape witnesses, had certain sympathies towards the indictee. I want the doctor to talk about people’s reactions when they are weak and their masters are strong”, Prosecutor Philip Alcock explained.

The trial of Radisav Ljubinac, a former member of the Army of Republika Srpska, who is charged with crimes committed against civilians from Rogatica municipality, will be continued on Wednesday, January 24th. The defence will question four new witnesses.

According to the indictment, Ljubinac participated in the attack and expulsion of locals from Seljani, some of whom are still missing.

Nex week, January 25 and 26, next hearing of Momcilo Mandic, justice minister in Radovan Karadzic government, is scheduled.

Mandic is charged that he managed the April 6 1992 attack on the Bosnian internal affairs ministry school located in Vrace, Sarajevo. It is also alleged that he was in charge of the relevant ministry at the time that detention camps were formed in former Serb Republic territory.

Procesution announced that soon they will finish with presenting evidences.

The next hearing of eleven indictees charged with genocide in Kravica is scheduled for January 25th. The Prosecution is still in the process of presenting evidence; it is questioning additional witnesses.

Former members of Bosnian Serb military police and army units are charged with the execution of around 1,000 Bosniaks which took place in the village of Kravica after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.