SIBENIK TRIAL OF FOUR FORMER CROATIAN SOLDIERS CONTINUES

SIBENIK, Aug 23 (Hina) - Sibenik County Deputy Prosecutor and the defence attorney for the first indictee presented at the Sibenik County Court on Friday their closing arguments in the trial of former Croatian soldiers Bozo Bacelic, Ante Mamic, Luka Vuko and Jurica Ravlic, accused of the murder of Milica and Nikola Damjanic in August 1995. #L# Deputy County Prosecutor Zivana Beros Dodig stated that she entirely supported the charges from the indictment. She said that the testimonies of most witnesses and autopsy reports as well as medical and forensic tests proved that the accused had committed the crime they were charged with and violated the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War as well as a supplementary protocol banning violence against those who are not involved in armed conflicts, which she said was why the accused should be found guilty of war crimes. According to Beros Dodig, the evidence presented made it obvious that the accused committed the murder together, but that the crime was ordered by the first indictee, Bozo Bacelic, while the other three, who were recruits, had to obey his orders as he was the unit commander. She said that the fact the three were only young adults at the time of the murder should be considered as extenuating circumstances. She asked that the court take into account the initial statements the three accused gave to the police and the investigating judge and denied during the trial. The deputy prosecutor said their claims that the police and prosecution had pressured them into making the statements were unfounded. If that is true, they had enough opportunity to say so immediately, she said. The defence attorney for the first indictee Bozo Bacelic, Joso Marinovic, said in his closing argument there was not a single piece of evidence that the accused had actually killed the Damjanic couple and in the way described in the charges. He also said that it had not been proven that the accused, even if they had committed the crime, had any way of knowing that the killed couple were Serbs, which was important for the nature of the crime. Marinovic also said that the only material evidence was the fact that it had been established that the couple had been killed by fragments of an exploded projectile. All the other evidence is based on subjective testimonies, he said. The trial will continue on Monday with the closing arguments of the defence of the other three indictees. (hina) sp rml sb