Since the Court did not set the trial date yet, the State Prosecution was unable to start questioning its 447 witnesses and exhibiting 1,105 exhibits in the trial against former Bosnian Army general Atif Dudakovic and others.
Given the number of witnesses, the President of the Trial Chamber, Zeljka Marinic said it would take at least 500 hours to present the case, not counting the time for cross-examination and testimonies of protected witnesses.
Prosecutor Vedrana Mijovic told the Chamber that there were no previously established facts by the UN tribunal in the Hague that would be relevant to the case, but the Chamber gave the defence two months to provide them to the Chamber as they claimed they had such facts.
The trial date is also conditioned by the health conditions of Ale Hodzic, who is one of the accused in the case. The Trial Chamber asked his attorney to provide all the health documentation to the Court so they could determine whether he was able to attend the trial or not.
Atif Dudakovic’s attorney, Asim Crnalic asked the Prosecution to investigate the false profiles on social networks pretending to be Dudakovic’s official profiles. Crnalic said their aim is only to harm and discredit his client since Dudakovic was banned from speaking to the press or the public.
“Those accounts mostly attack the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) entity and events happening there. Those things have nothing to do general Dudakovic. If secret services are behind this, I kindly ask them to stop,” Crnalic said on Monday. “The prosecution must investigate this because the defence can’t do that.”
The former commander of the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Atif Dudakovic, and 16 other members of the Corps, are charged with war crimes including the killing of more than 300 persons of Serb nationality, the persecution and abuse of civilians and prisoners of war, as well as the destruction of 38 Orthodox churches and religious facilities.
According to the indictment, the Corps committed crimes against humanity in north-western municipalities of Bosanski Petrovic, Kljuc, Bosanska Krupa and Sanski Most.
The part of the indictment concerning Atif Dudakovic refers to war crimes committed against Bosniak victims, members and supporters of the National Defense of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia in the municipalities of Bihac and Cazin.
The Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia was a small unrecognised state that existed in the northwest of Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1993 and 1995. It consisted of the town of Velika Kladusa (its capital) and a few nearby villages. It was proclaimed as a result of secessionist politics by former Bosnian president Fikret Abdic against the central government of Alija Izetbegovic during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.
