ŽUPLJANIN: TARGETED OBSTRUCTION OF PROCEEDINGS AGAINST DUDAKOVIĆ

BANJA LUKA, FEBRUARY 3 /SRNA/ - President of the Organisation of Officers of the Army of the Republika Srpska /VRS/ Slobodan Župljanin believes that the defence of former wartime commander of the so-called Army of BiH Atif Dudaković is using all legally permitted means, including frequent medical examinations, in order to prolong the trial as much as possible.

Župljanin said that in the "Dudaković" case there is likely targeted obstruction of the proceedings and an attempt to avoid a verdict by "letting time take its course". "How else can one understand the fact that most Serbs went through the entire trial process and received guilty verdicts even though many of them were in extremely poor health," Župljanin told SRNA. Župljanin said this particularly applies to Serbs who were tried before the Hague Tribunal. "None of them had expert and professional medical treatment, and they left The Hague either in coffins or with severely damaged health. This is a one-sided approach in which Serbs were stigmatized and often convicted even before trial," Župljanin said. According to him, the law clearly prescribes situations in which proceedings may be delayed, including the health condition of the accused. "In such cases, courts generally act in a way that does not endanger health," Župljanin said. He added that findings of medical expert evaluations should be considered within broader knowledge about the overall health of the accused, so that situations do not occur where an accused is declared unfit for trial while regularly carrying out other activities. Medical experts agreed that the former commander of the Fifth Corps of the so-called Army of BiH is not fit to stand trial for crimes committed against the Serb population in the Krajina region. The findings were presented yesterday by a team of medical experts from Tuzla during a status conference at the Court of BiH.