The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) scheduled for May 30th the sentencing of Senad Gadzo, Zaim Lalicic, and SuljoHebib, who were accused of illegal imprisonment, murder, torture, and ill-treatment in Hrasnica near Sarajevo from 1992 to 1994.
The defense of three former members of the Army of the Republic of BiH (ARBiH) presented closing arguments in which they requested an acquittal, pointing out that some counts of the indictment are based only on the testimony of witnesses that the defense attorneys could not examine, and that no evidence was presented for some of them and that it was logical that the Prosecution gave them up.
“The verdict cannot be based solely on the testimony of a witness whom the Defense could not examine,” said Gadzo‘s defense attorney Lejla Covic in one of several examples she cited.
She analyzed the evidence for 16 counts of the indictment accusing Gadzo of beating and murdering persons of Serbian nationality imprisoned at three locations in Hrasnica. According to her, in no case has the guilt of the accused been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Moreover, Covic explained that several points were based on the statements of the deceased witness Mirko Vukovic, but that they contain contradictory statements. She added that some witnesses mentioned that Gadzo had taken out or returned some prisoners, but that there was no evidence of who beat them.
Lalicic’s defense attorney, Sabina Mehic, noted that 15 of the 53 proposed witnesses were heard and that six statements were read, stating that the indictment was confirmed on the assumption that the proposed witnesses would be heard, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
