Koricanske Stijene: Prosecution Asks for Long Jail Terms

Prosecutor Slavica Terzic said that she was “convinced, more than ever”, that Sasa Zecevic, Radoslav Knezevic, Petar Civcic, Branko Topola and Marinko Ljepoja participated in the killing of about 200 Bosniak and Bosnian Croat men, who had been separated from the rest of the convoy.

Terzic asked for long term prison sentences for the accused because of, as she described it, the horrible crime.

The prosecutor gave her explanation for why none of the escorts, including the indictees, spoke about the order to commit murders during the journey.

“Everything had been agreed upon in advance. The perpetrators were members of a well-established team and knew what they had to do,” Terzic said.

According to the charges, Zecevic, Knezevic, Civcic and Ljepoja were policemen with the Interventions Squad at the police station in Prijedor, and Topola was a guard in the Trnopolje detention camp. 

“The Interventions Squad was the key element of the joint criminal enterprise which carried out the persecution,” the prosecutor said, adding that thousands of Prijedor residents were detained in the Omarska, Trnopolje and Keraterm detention camps.

The prosecution said that it had proved that about 200 able-bodied men were separated from the convoy on Mount Vlasic, loaded into two buses, transported to Koricanske Stijene, lined up on the side of a pit and shot.

According to the prosecutor, the victims’ only sin was that they were non Serbs.

Terzic reminded the Trial Chamber of Damir Ivankovic's testimony.  Ivankovic was a former member of the Interventions Squad, who pleaded guilty for this crime and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. 

He testified that, following the murders, some members of the Interventions Squad, including one of the accused, Topola, went to a café in Knezevo, where some of them bragged about “shooting and killing”.

The defence of Zecevic and Knezevic are due to present their closing statements on Thursday, June 7.