Closing Arguments in Trials for Genocide in Srebrenica and Crimes in Sanski Most and Stolac

(Patria) - A hearing is scheduled for next week at the State Court where the Defense of Srećko Aćimović, accused of genocide in Srebrenica, will continue presenting its closing arguments, while the Defense of Mirko Vrućinić, and Mile Pažin and Vido Krešić, accused of crimes in Sanski Most and Stolac, are also scheduled to present their closing arguments.

The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Aćimović that, as commander of the Second Battalion of the Zvornik Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), in July 1995, he acted on the orders of the brigade's command and the Main Staff of the VRS to take the people of Srebrenica from the school in Roćević near Zvornik, with blindfolds and tied hands, to a location he chose himself – a gravel pit on the banks of the Drina River in Kozluk, where they were killed.

The Prosecutor's Office presented its closing arguments in Aćimović's trial at a hearing held in March this year, while the Defense began its closing arguments on June 10 and will continue on Wednesday, September 2.

The Defense of Mirko Vrućinić, accused of crimes committed in the area of Sanski Most in 1992, will present its closing arguments on Monday, August 31.

Vrućinić, former head of the Public Security Station (SJB) and a member of the Crisis Staff in Sanski Most, is charged by the indictment with participation in a joint criminal enterprise involving murders, forced displacement, unlawful detention, and enforced disappearances.

The Defense of Mile Pažin and Vido Krešić, who are charged with crimes committed in the area of Stolac in 1993, will present their closing arguments at a hearing scheduled for September 1.

The indictment charges Pažin with the arrest, physical and psychological abuse of women, children, and several men who were detained in the school in Crnići, from where they were transferred to facilities in Đulići and Kaplan Mahala, while Krešić is charged with psychological and physical abuse of civilians detained in the "Koštana Hospital" in Stolac.

Trials for crimes committed in Pale, Foča, Zvornik, Zavidovići, Prijedor, Sarajevo, Kalinovik, and Brčko will continue next week.