SPLIT, Nov 13 (Hina) - The trial of eight former military police accused of war crimes committed in Split's Lora prison in 1992 resumed on Wednesday with statements by the defendants who pleaded not guilty to any count of the
indictment.
SPLIT, Nov 13 (Hina) - The trial of eight former military police
accused of war crimes committed in Split's Lora prison in 1992
resumed on Wednesday with statements by the defendants who pleaded
not guilty to any count of the indictment. #L#
Tonci Vrkic, Davor Banic, Emilio Bungur, Ante Gudic, and Andjelko
Botic also stated the indictment was unfounded.
Bungur, Gudic, and Botic described an attempted escape by prisoner
Nenad Knezevic, whom they wounded in the attempt. They said
Knezevic was subsequently taken to a hospital, allegedly
accompanied by the accused Josip Bikic and Miljenko Bajic, who are
both at large since August.
The defendants said they had no concrete knowledge about the death
of prisoner Gojko Bulovic. Bangur said he remembered Bulovic
because while being admitted to Lora he said he suffered from a
grave heart condition.
Botic said that two persons in civilian clothing came to the prison
on 14 June 1992 to question prisoners. Asked who was authorised to
interrogate, Botic said members of the Security and Intelligence
Service (SIS) and the criminal police.
Botic, Gudic, and Bungur did not work at Lora as guards after 1 July
1992, when they returned to their military unit, the Fourth Guard
Brigade. They said they had no knowledge about subsequent events in
the prison.
Asked why some people had mentioned them as the ones who had abused
them, the defendants said they had never abused anyone and had no
knowledge about that.
Bungur branded the trial at the Split County Court a "harangue
because of the so-called Lora case, which actually doesn't exist".
Said Botic, "The lies served by so-called witnesses who saw through
walls and (claimed) that we slaughtered the late Knezevic are the
biggest insult for me. Particularly when the Croatian judiciary
believed the Chetniks who devastated and set Croatia on fire and not
the soldiers who defended it."
Vrkic said that nobody had been abused at Lora and that there had
been no inductor telephone there.
Banic too said he had no knowledge of any abuse.
The statements the absent Bikic and Bajic gave during investigation
were read out. The first on the indictment, former Lora head
Tomislav Duic, is also tried in absentia. He has been on the run
since September last year, when the other seven were arrested.
The trial resumes on Friday. Tomorrow, presiding Judge Slavko
Lozina is attending a State Judicial Council session which is to
decide on a request by the justice minister that he be relieved of
duty. If the request is granted, the trial will be given to another
judge and the entire proceeding begins anew.
(hina) ha sb