Albina Terzic's Verdict Due mid October

The date of the verdict, which would be the Bosnian court’s second ever verdict on a female war crimes defendant, was announced after the prosecution and Albina Terzic’s defence finished presenting their closing arguments.

The prosecution previously asked the court to find Terzic, an ex member of the Croatian Defence Forces, HVO, guilty of abusing Bosnian Serb prisoners. 

The defence argued that it is impossible to draw conclusions about Terzic’s alleged guilty from the witness’s statements.

Terzic is charged with abusing illegally detained Bosnian Serb prisoners in the elementary school and the Strolit factory in Odzak from May to July 1992.

According to the indictment, she hit prisoners, encouraged a dog to attack them and forced them to have sexual intercourse.

The defence lawyer, Tomislav Ljubic, said that the detained men were not civilians, but prisoners of war; hence Terzic should have been charged with crimes against POW’s and not civilians. 

“The prosecution witnesses clearly confirmed that the Serb population in Novi Grad and neighbouring towns started arming in the autumn of 1991,” said Ljubic.

Ljubic also said that the protected witnesses who testified at the trial were not trustworthy.

“The testimony of protected witness AB-2 is not trustworthy and it is impossible to look away from the contradictions in that statement”, said Ljubic.

The defence said that three witnesses confirmed that Terzic was a refugee in the town of Kutjevo in Croatia, from April to June 1992, and that the prosecution did nothing to dispute her alibi.

Ljubic rejected as “illogical” claims by the prosecution that Terzic could have moved freely from Kutjevo to Odzak, because they were 60 kilometers apart.

“How could the defendant have moved each day, when there was war in Bosnia and Croatia? Public transport did not work and the defendant had no vehicle,” said Ljubic.