The presentation of evidence in the case of deportation of refugees from Montenegro to Republika Srpska in 1992 ended in less than a week after the retrial started.
The Trial Chamber of Podgorica’s Superior Court has rejected on Wednesday motions by both the defence and the prosecution for new evidence to be introduced in the trial against nine former police officers.
The nine men are indicted for arrests and deportation of 79 Bosniak and Bosnian Serb refugees from Montenegro to Republika Srpska in 1992.
After being handed over to the Bosnian Serb authorities, most of the Bosniaks were executed.
The prosecution wanted two witnesses, Ifeta Cengic and Zec Razija, both of whom are residing abroad, to testify.
It also proposed the testimony of Elvira Rikalo-Sljivar, sister of three deportation's victims and an eyewitness to the 1992 police action.
The court ruled that there was neither need nor conditions for the three testimonies.
Nadziba Bajrovic, the wife of one of the victims, was also supposed to testify. In the previous trial, she stated that Milorad Ivanovic, one of the defendants, was heard making hate speeches against Muslims prior to the deportation.
She requested the protected witness status out fear for her security.
On Wednesday, the court rejected her request, explaining that the conditions for obtaining the status of protected witness were not met, since Bajrovic already testified once without seeking special status.
The first trial against nine former police officers, charged for war crime against civilians in the case of 1992 arrests and deportation of refugees, started in 2009 but, in March last year, it ended in acquittal.
The reasons for the acquittal in the first-instance verdict were that Montenegro was not in international conflict with Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time, and because, as police officers, the indictees were not part of any military formation.
The appeals court, however, found in March that the verdict contradicted itself, as it stated in two different places that the conflict in Bosnia was both internal and international and ordered a retrial.
The Wednesday's session was the third one since the retrial began last Thursday.
As in the previous trial, defence question authenticity and validity of written evidence, which were filed by the prosecution and presented at the session held on Monday.
The presentation of closing arguments is scheduled for September 14.
Timeline of events in the case against 13 former Serb fighters charged with committing war crimes in the villages of Cuska, Zahac, Ljubenic and Pavlac in Kosovo in 1999.