Bakira Hasečić removed from trial of war criminal Petar Kovačević

Bakira Hasečić, president of the Association “Women-Victims of War” was removed from the trial of Petar Kovačević today, who is being tried before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for war crimes committed in 1992 against the Bosniak population in Višegrad.

As confirmed by Hasečić to the BiH news agency Patria (NAP), the defense of the accused Kovačević requested that she leave today’s hearing, citing that the defense wishes to call Bakira Hasečić as a witness to testify in favor of Kovačević’s defense.

- This is not the first time such things have happened – said Hasečić.

- Criminals fear my presence in the courtroom because they know I know the truth about each of them, so they try to remove me from the courtroom in every way possible. In some earlier cases, when criminals were being tried, they asked me to leave the courtroom because they allegedly wanted me as their witness, but none of those defenses have ever called me as a witness. This game of theirs is just one legal way to keep me away from the courtroom - says Hasečić.

Kovačević is accused of, from May to the end of August 1992, as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian Bosniak population in the municipality of Višegrad, as a member of the VRS, persecuting the Bosniak civilian population in the municipality of Višegrad on political, national, ethnic, and religious grounds, participating in the imprisonment, murder, and forcing another person, through the use of force or threat of direct attack on their life or body, into sexual acts.

In four counts of the indictment, the accused Petar Kovačević is accused of participating, along with a group of armed soldiers, in an attack on the Bosniak population of the municipality of Višegrad and the surrounding villages of Zlatnik, Turjak, and Zanožje, during which two civilians were killed by gunfire and houses were set on fire in an attack with firearms, in which three women burned to death.

The accused is accused of personally, armed with an automatic rifle, in a camouflage uniform, coming to the village of Dobrun, municipality of Višegrad, and killing one civilian by shooting him in the back of the head with a firearm.

As further stated, the accused personally raped two women at gunpoint and then took them to the local office in Dobrun, which served as a camp for captured civilians, writes NAP.