In its closing argument at the trial for crimes in Konjic, the prosecution asked that Eso Macic, a former member of the Bosnian Army, be found guilty of crimes committed in the camps Celebici and Musala.
According to the prosecutor, Sanja Jukic, the witness statements have proven beyond reasonable doubt that Macic took part in beatings and murders of Serb prisoners.
“The defendant carried out all his actions in the camps in which people were locked up only because of their nationality, which is significant because it proves the defendant’s intention to commit crimes against people who cannot defend themselves,” said Jukic, asking that Macic is found guilty.
The prosecution charged Macic, as a guard in the camps Celebici and Musala, with crimes against the Bosnian Serb civilians and prisoners of war in 1992 and 1993.
The indictment specifies that in mid-June 1992, together with other guards at the Celebici camp, Macic brutally beat up an elderly Serb civilian who died from the injuries.
The prosecution also charges Macic with killing a Serb civilian in the same camp in the first half of June 1992, as well as that in 1993, in the Musala sports hall in Konjic, he inhumanly treated civilians and prisoners of war, causing them severe bodily injuries, physical and emotional pain.
The trial of Macic, who is defending himself at liberty, started in January last year.
The prosecutor said that the prosecution witnesses “clearly, undeniably and authentically” described the defendant’s participation in the murders of Scepo Gotovac and Milorad Kuljanin in the Celebici camp, as well as the beating of other prisoners.
The prosecutor assessed that the statements of majority of witnesses for the defence were “irrelevant”, and that they did not “contest the foundation of the counts of the indictment.”
Macic’s defence will present its closing argument on October 24.
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.