Orić Case: Key Witness with Three Different Statements

Three fighters from Srebrenica have been arrested on charges of committing crimes against civilian prisoners. They are linked to Naser Orić and are suspected of killing 9 people, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

Those arrested are Izet Arifović, Suad Smajlović and Amir Salihović.    

The suspects are accused of, on July 12, 1992, during an attack on the village of Zalazje, capturing 8 civilians of Serbian ethnicity. They are then alleged to have handed them over, with their hands tied, together with four dead bodies brought on the bed of a truck to the police station in Srebrenica. Izet Arifović is suspected of killing one of those civilians of Serbian ethnicity by firing a firearm at close range, and the suspect Salihović is accused of taking the remaining prisoners on a truck in an unknown direction, after which they were no longer seen alive, so that after the war, the remains of some of the victims were found and exhumed, while others are still being searched for. 

Killed civilians or soldiers in combat 

The first reactions of Srebrenica residents to the arrest of the three defense fighters are heated. Most of them claim they are once again faced with fabricated charges and drilled witnesses. 

Namely, in previous testimonies it was said that the captured civilians were killed in Zalazje, while today there is testimony that they were taken from Zalazje to Srebrenica and allegedly killed there.

Srebrenica residents who wished to remain anonymous claim that those killed were soldiers, not civilians. According to available documentation of the Army of Republika Srpska, the persons listed as captured and then killed died as members of armed formations of the VRS on the front lines in Zalazje.            

After Samir Avdić falsely testified against Naser Orić and recently fled from Serbia to BiH, suspicion remains that other witnesses were also drilled and prepared for false testimonies. Samir Avdić claimed that his testimony, although coerced, was supposed to be well rewarded. He publicly stated that he was offered money and relocation to a Western country for false testimony against Orić.

Remembered on the third attempt

Today, a new indictment was filed against Orić, as well as for the case of this trio regarding Zalazje. The entire indictment is based on and relies on the statement of yet another witness. 

Orić's defense has established that numerous alleged witnesses were interrogated in Serbia and gave statements under duress. At the same time, it was learned that this sole remaining witness on which the indictment relies was interrogated in Serbia, so suspicion about his credibility is fully justified. This allegedly key witness gave three completely different statements. What further casts doubt on such testimony is that he speaks about the events from the indictment only in the last statement he gave in August last year. Before that, he did not even mention Zalazje.