Dobrovoljačka Case: Prosecutor Interrupts Defense in Witness Examination Denying Crimes Against Sarajevo Citizens

By: Amra Vrabac

At the last hearing held in the case of Ejup Ganić and others (Dobrovoljačka) at the Court of BiH on July 16, the defense was denied the right to present the defense of their clients, i.e., to question the witness who testified via video link from the Higher Court in Belgrade about all the facts and circumstances of his stay in BiH in the period from 1992 to 1996 as an officer of the JNA, and later the Army of Yugoslavia, or a foreign army after BiH held a referendum on independence on March 1, 1992.

Presiding Judge Darko Samardžić refused to allow the defense to further state their objections to the witness testifying via video link. He then stated that such testimony is desirable when witnesses are not in BiH, as is the case here, but that it could also be applied to witnesses who are in BiH. This was not the only witness who, since the trial began in October 2022, has testified via video link from Belgrade, where the indictment in the Dobrovoljačka case against the highest leadership of the Army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of RBiH was prepared.

Although Samardžić stated that the Court has begun to conduct trials via video link, the Court and the BiH Prosecutor's Office did not jointly announce this, as they did in the case of Milorad Dodik on July 4, 2025, when a secret hearing was held after working hours during which his detention was lifted. Previously, the BiH Prosecutor's Office had to explain every request for testimony via video link to the Court, but clearly in the Dobrovoljačka case, such testimony is becoming desirable, and the defense is denied the possibility of objection.

Although Samardžić instructed them to ask the witness what they were interested in with their questions, during the examination, both he and prosecutor Mladen Vukojičić interrupted them, stating that the questions went beyond the scope of the indictment. However, to shed light on the events of May 2 and 3, the defense believes it is necessary to clarify what happened in the days before the beginning of May, as well as the role of the witness himself.

Witness Ratomir Maksimović (born 1943), by his own admission, stayed in Sarajevo several times, and first came from Belgrade to Pale at the end of April 1992 to pick up his wife and son.

During his testimony, Maksimović repeatedly denied crimes committed against Sarajevo citizens, defending war criminal Stanislav Galić and stating that he felt sorry for him. Maksimović was also a defense witness for war criminals Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić as a member of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps. He clearly specified that they received orders from Belgrade. Prosecutor Vukojičić interrupted lawyer Jesenka Rešidović, stating that the witness was exhausting himself on topics not in the indictment, and to whose questions the witness confirmed that he had been a defense witness for war criminals.

Although lawyer Lejla Čović drew the Court's attention to the fact that the witness denies the verdicts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and that this is happening without reaction, judge Samardžić said that the prosecutor would assess when and if he would react. It should be noted that the details from these verdicts are not part of the indictment in the Dobrovoljačka case, so it is clear why Vukojičić interrupted the lawyers while they were questioning the witness.

Another problem pointed out during the hearing was the prosecutor's conduct, who informed the defense late about the next witness, so judge Samardžić asked prosecutor Vukojičić to provide the defense with four to five names of witnesses he plans for the next hearings in advance so that the defense can prepare properly.

Otherwise, in previous trials in the Dobrovoljačka case, some witnesses who admitted to shooting at Sarajevo on May 2, 1992, or participating in hostilities, received identity protection, but not indictments for crimes against Sarajevo citizens, while the defenders of Sarajevo are being accused and exhausted by years-long trials with witnesses whose testimonies were prepared in Belgrade.

The BiH Prosecutor's Office has never filed any indictment for crimes in Sarajevo, for the murder of children in besieged Sarajevo, and several cases were only handed over to the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office in the last year.