Case of former El Mudzahid detachment member: Halid Genjac to testify for BiH Prosecution

Halid Genjac, one of the key figures in SDA and a Member of Parliament in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will be a witness for the BiH Prosecution against a former member of the "El Mudzahid" detachment, reports the news agency Patria. 

Genjac will testify against Mirsad Hodžić, known as Abu Džafer, who is charged by an unconfirmed indictment of the BiH Prosecution with war crimes against the civilian population committed in the Travnik area.

According to the BiH Prosecution, in October 1993, Hodžić, along with other individuals, abducted three civilians of Croatian nationality at gunpoint for the purpose of exchange for captured members of the "El Mudzahid" detachment.

Ten years ago, Hodžić testified at the trial of Abduladhim Maktouf, an Iraqi national, who was sentenced to three years in prison for assisting in the abduction of Croatian civilians Ivo Fišić, Kazimir Pobrić, and Ivan Rajković in Travnik.

During his testimony, Hodžić stated that he received the list of names of individuals to be abducted from Genjac, who was the head of the Travnik SDA in 1993.

“That is nonsense. What he said then, and what he is probably saying today, was and remains nonsense,” Genjac told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH).

According to Genjac, Hodžić has always been a problematic individual and is “now speculating with my name, trying to achieve some concession for himself."

Genjac claims that he has told everything he knows about the events of the '90s at Maktouf's trial, emphasizing that he also stated back then that he had no lists with the names of civilians to be taken away. 

“I told the investigators everything I knew during the investigation that preceded the filing of this indictment. When the trial begins, I will testify as a witness for the BiH Prosecution and I will again say everything I know,” said Genjac, asserting that he will repeat that everything Hodžić is saying is nonsense.

According to the verdict, Maktouf assisted members of the "El Mudzahid" unit in the illegal arrest, detention, and abduction of three civilians of Croatian nationality in Travnik in 1993.

Maktouf's trial was reopened after the European Court of Human Rights determined that during the initial proceedings, which lasted from 2004 to 2006, the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CC BiH) was incorrectly applied instead of the law of former Yugoslavia, which was more lenient.

After serving his prison sentence, Maktouf was stripped of his BiH citizenship and left the country, Birn reports.