Defense expert for Mladić and Šešelj testified in the Halilović and Veseli case

The main hearing in the case against Sakib Halilović and Elfeta Veseli continued today at the Court of BiH, reports the Patria News Agency. Expert witness Dr. Zoran Stanković testified, who performed autopsies on the murdered boy Slobodan Stojanović and several other bodies, upon the order of the investigating judge of the Basic Court of Zvornik, Radovan Nikolić.

Incidentally, the defense stated that the autopsy report, which Halilović's lawyer Lejla Čović received this morning (Elfeta Veseli's lawyer Mirna Delalić did not receive it at all), and which expert witness Stanković signed and gave to the BiH Prosecutor's Office this morning, was created on June 14, 1993, while the report signed by judge Nikolić states that the identification was carried out in March 1993, which was filed with the case file along with the indictment. The expert witness stated that he was unaware that judge Nikolić had kept minutes during the identification.

The weight of the autopsied remains also differs between these two documents. One states 50 kilograms, and the other 30 kilograms. The expert witness justified this as a possible printing error!? The trial panel will later decide whether to include the autopsy report as evidence for the BiH Prosecutor's Office.

The expert witness told lawyer Delalić that he prepared the report on his way to Belgrade in June 1993, but that he did not give it to any institution until 2001, when he submitted the documentation to the Hague Tribunal.

While reading the autopsy report, Stanković told prosecutor Miroslav Janjić that a gunshot wound was observed on the skull of the boy Stojanović (they identified him based on his feet and hands, his parents were present, but his face was not visible because the body was in a state of decomposition).

- The projectile was fired at close range, which was confirmed by the reconstruction of the wound. The right earlobe was missing from the skull, and wounds were also recorded in the abdominal area, all inflicted with a sharp object, possibly a knife or a razor blade - stated the expert witness.

We remind you that the indictment states that the boy Stojanović was killed by slitting by Veseli, while today Stanković stated that the murdered twelve-year-old boy had a gunshot wound to the head, which was most likely the cause of death.

When asked by lawyer Delalić whether the spine and neck veins were injured on the remains, Stanković answered negatively, adding that, based on what they could determine at the time, there were injuries to the right ear inflicted by a sharp object, meaning the right ear was missing. Delalić presented Stanković with an interview he gave to the media in which he spoke about the fighting on Glođansko brdo and the suffering of the boy, but the expert witness could not recall it today.

He stated that the autopsy of the body determined that it belonged to a boy 145 centimeters tall, whose identification was also assisted by his parents. The indictment of the BiH Prosecutor's Office charges Halilović and Veseli with committing a war crime against a minor victim of Serbian nationality.

As stated in the indictment, Halilović, as the commander of the Diversionary Platoon of the joint units of Liplje-Kamenica, in the Bajrići hamlet, witnessed the brutal murder of the 12-year-old boy of Serbian nationality, Slobodan Stojanović.

When asked by Lejla Čović, the lawyer of the first defendant, whether any analysis other than the confirmation from the parents was conducted to determine the identity of the murdered boy, the expert witness answered negatively.

- At that time, DNA analysis was only performed in Visoko and was very expensive - stated the expert witness.

The continuation of the trial is scheduled for September 6.

WHO IS STANKOVIĆ

Expert witness Stanković was a defense witness for almost all high-ranking officials of Serbia who were tried for crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo. Among others, he was Ratko Mladić's expert witness for forensic medicine, and he is a former Minister of Defense of Serbia. He disputed the findings of pathologists who performed autopsies on bodies from mass graves found after the genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995. He was also a prosecution witness at the trial of Naser Orić in The Hague, where he was declared not credible by the court because he stated that his findings for Muslim bodies had burned, and that he only had preserved findings for Serbian bodies.

He also testified in favor of Vojislav Šešelj and other various criminals.

He stated today that during the war he was part of the international committee for monitoring violations of humanitarian law for Serbia, and it is not known whether this committee filed any complaints regarding Eastern Bosnia and the fact that 15,000 Bosniaks were killed there in the aggression.