Sanija Dzevlan, witness at the Radovan Karadzic trial

In April 2009, Karadzic indicated that he would ‘contest everything but the weather”. Today, he spent most of his time in the cross-examination of Sanija Dzevlan, victim of a sniper incident listed in the indictment, on debating the atmospheric conditions on 6 January 1994 in Sarajevo.

Sanija Dzevlan was hit by two bullets as she rode her bike over the bridge in the Nikole Demonje Street that day. She believes that the shots were fired from the bell tower of the Orthodox Church or one of the buildings in the Dobrinja IV neighborhood under the Bosnian Serb control.

The witness described that the incident occurred at around 4 pm. The day was cloudy but visibility was good. The witness, who wore a ‘lemon yellow jacket’ and had long hair down her back was a clearly visible target.

Karadzic contested this claim. According to him, in January, it is already dark in Sarajevo at 4 pm, because the city lies in a valley and because it was cloudy, as the witness said.

Karadzic already aired his argument about ‘early nightfall in Sarajevo’ in September 2010 in the cross-examination of Dutch sniper expert Van der Weijden. In the meantime, prosecutor Gaynor did his homework and provided precise meteorological data for 6 January 1994: on that day, the Sun set at 4:24 pm, the twilight lasted until 4:55 pm and the ‘astronomical twilight’ ended at 6:06 pm. Karadzic called this ‘guesswork’ and remained adamant that because of clouds the visibility was limited when Sanija Dzevlan was injured.

Karadzic also found it suspicious that the location of entry and exit wounds was not specified in the medical records on the witness’s injuries. Karadzic as a ‘medical doctor’ found this an unacceptable omission.

After Sanija Dzevlan completed her evidence, the prosecution called Tihomir Glavas, former police chief in the Sarajevo municipalities of Hadzici and Ilidza.

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