The defense teams of three former Territorial Defense soldiers charged with war crimes in Kotor Varos have called upon the state court’s appeal chamber to hand down verdicts of release. The defense states their clients didn’t participate in an attack on civilians in the village of Serdari in 1992. The verdict is scheduled for February 4.
Presenting its closing statement at the retrial of former Territorial Defense members Fikret Planincic, Sead Menzil and Mirsad Vatrac, the prosecution called for a guilty verdict. The prosecution insisted the trial chamber consider the death of civilians and girls while deliberating the sentence.
The retrial of former Territorial Defense members Fikret Planincic, Sead Menzil and Mirsad Vatrac has begun. The defendants have been charged with war crimes in Kotor Varos.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, proposes to the Appellate Chamber of the Court of BiH to pronounce longer sentences against Fikret Planincic, Sead Menzil and Mirsad Vatrac, who were sentenced, under a first instance verdict, to a total of 33-and-a-half years in prison for crimes in Serdari, Kotor-Varos municipality.
Presenting their closing statements, the Defence of Fikret Planincic and Rasim Lisancic call for a verdict of release, saying that it has not been proved that they participated in an attack on Serdari village on September 17, 1992.
Presenting his closing statement at the trial for crimes committed in Kotor-Varos, the Prosecutor says that it has been proved that the indictees participated in an attack on Serdari village, requesting the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to “sentence them in accordance with the law”.
The presentation of evidence for crimes in the Kotor-Varos area in 1992 has been completed with the presentation of material evidence by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Defence.
As the trial for crimes in Kotor-Varos continues, indictee Sead Menzil’s Defence witnesses say that, in 1992 they signed statements about events in that area after having been captured by members of Serb forces and that they signed them under pressure.
During cross-examination, a military expert witness says that two soldiers were present in Serdari village during an attack on the village, but that does not change the stand that civilians were attacked and killed.
Denying the Defence’s evidence, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina examines a military court expert who says that Serdari village was outside the combat activities zone, adding that neither Serb forces nor any organised defence existed in the village.