The Appellate Court in Belgrade rejected the proposal for the testimony of Ratko Mladic, former commander of the Army of the RS (VRS), on the trial of ten people accused of helping him while he was on the run despite an international arrest warrant.
The Court rejected the proposal of Defense that Mladic, who is on trial at the Hague Tribunal, appears in court in Belgrade and testifies in favor of ten people charged with helping in his escape from his charges of war crimes that he committed in BiH.
Lawyer of Defense Goran Petronijevic said that Mladic’s testimony could help in proving the innocence of the accused.
For helping Ratko Mladic in hiding, the following are accused: Stanko Ristić, Ljiljana Vasković, Borislav Ivanović, Predrag Ristić, Saša Badnjar, Ratko Vučetić, Tatjana Vasković-Janjušević, Bojan Vasković, Marko Lugonja and Blagoje Govedarica.
According to the indictment, the main organizer of attempts to hide Mladic was the officer of the Army of the RS Jovo Djogo, but he died during the trial. Mladic was arrested in 2011 in the village Lazarevo near Zrenjanin, in northern Serbia, 16 years after committed crimes.
Currently, Mladic is prosecuted in The Hague for genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats on the territory of BiH, which in several municipalities reached the scale of genocide, terrorizing the citizens of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers as hostages.
The Defense and Prosecution have already presented their closing arguments in December last year. The verdict will be pronounced in November this year.
(Source: fokus.ba)
