Key Prosecution Witness in Orić Case Was Never a Member of the ARBiH!

The continuation of the main trial in the case against former ARBiH commander in Srebrenica Naser Orić and his comrade Sabahudin Muhić is scheduled for April 5, 2016, when the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina plans to present two new witnesses, reports the Patria news agency.

In the part of the trial so far, the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has experienced a kind of fiasco, with protected witness O1 and Milomir Lazarević, a former member of the VRS, testifying. Lazarević literally refuted the earlier claims of the controversial O1 in his testimony.

Lejla Čović, Naser Orić's attorney, listed dozens of horrifying details related to the protected witness at the last hearing. It was incredible that such a witness was even included in this process as relevant, and the Prosecutor's Office of BiH objected to some defense evidence, while accepting others.

It turned out that he had been convicted multiple times for false representation, fraud, and causing grievous bodily harm. For abuse of social security rights, and he was even charged with robbery. A court proceeding is ongoing because he robbed an elderly woman in Tuzla.

Since O1 entered the witness protection program for this trial, he has not appeared in this court proceeding for the robbery of the elderly woman. He was convicted of several frauds in Banovići committed between June 2002 and May 2003. He served his sentence in prison in Tuzla for that.

O1, who testified via video link, stated that Naser Orić personally killed judge Slobodan Ilić in Zalazje and fired a burst at prisoners fleeing from houses. However, Lazarević told the Court of BiH that there was no shooting, nor did he see any killing.

He also confirmed that after the trucks left, he heard the troops forming up and an order to collect weapons, but there was no shooting, he says. After everything quieted down, around half past seven in the evening, he and other soldiers hiding in the attic withdrew towards Sase.

Čović asked Lazarević if someone claimed that ARBiH soldiers entered the village around 11-12 o'clock, walked around, and similar, that it would be impossible, to which the witness answered affirmatively.

With this question, the defense actually wanted to prove that protected witness O1 lied even when he said he was at the cemetery in Zalazje around 11 o'clock, and that the action was finished around 12 o'clock, after which he allegedly freely walked around the village. However, Lazarević's testimony also refuted those claims of the protected witness.

And the extensive documentation submitted to the Court of BiH by attorney Čović proves all the lack of credibility of O1. Among the documents, a decision of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Tuzla was submitted stating that proceedings are being conducted against him for robbery, as well as documentation from the Federal Ministry for Veterans' Affairs, which relates to part of the witness's statement where witness O1 speaks about who his superior was, and which proves that person was not a member of the ARBiH, as well as a set of 30 documents from the audit of the same Ministry, which prove that witness O1 was not a member of the ARBiH, and that he provided false information.

Key medical documentation was also submitted to the case file proving that protected witness O1 could not have been in the action in Kunjerac on December 14, 1992, in which Mitar Savić was killed, because three days earlier he was wounded in both shins, after which he was treated in Tuzla for a month, which he himself confirmed while testifying from Belgrade.

Čović also submitted evidence from additional material of the Prosecutor's Office, by which the defense proves that witness O1 was previously prepared for testimony in Serbia, specifically in the Ministry of Interior of Serbia.

The defense has documents proving that O1 was heard in Belgrade as early as August 14, 2011, which is direct evidence that O1 has been cooperating with the judiciary in Serbia for many years.

VIOLENT PERSON HAS AMNESIA

O1 is an extremely violent person. He has participated in fights in Živinice several times. On one occasion, he attacked an old man, cursing his faith and religious symbols, while he was sitting peacefully in the park. He attacked a person with a carpenter's axe. He attacked and caused serious bodily harm to his common-law wife. In one health center, he attacked a security guard...

The key witness for the Prosecution in this trial against Orić gave about twenty different statements in five statements or official notes about what he allegedly saw. In no statement did he repeat that he saw the same event. The key witness did not mention a single date in his statement, so the President of the Panel asked him if he at least remembered the season. And again he was not sure.