Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin in the courtroom

At the pre-defense conference at the trial of two former Bosnian Serb police officials, Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin, presiding judge Burton Hall informed the parties that the Trial Chamber had decided to grant the two defense teams a total of 166 hours for their case. They might be given additional time to examine the witnesses.

The defense of Mico Stanisic, the first interior minister in the Bosnian Serb government, has been given 102 hours to present their case. Slobodan Zecevic indicated that the defense planned to call 11 witnesses. The defense intends to tender into evidence approximately 900 documents through their testimony. The defense was given 20 hours for the examination-in chief of three of their witnesses. Zupljanin’s defense was given a total of 64 hours for the examination-in chief of the 24 witnesses the accused intends to call.

The names of the accused are not on the witness lists submitted by the defense teams, which means that Stanisic and Zupljanin will not testify in their own defense. Their defense lawyers may change their minds and file a motion seeking permission to call their clients as witnesses.

Former interior minister Stanisic and police chief in the Banja Luka region Zupljanin are charged with the persecution, murder, torture, cruel treatment, deportation and inhumane treatment of Bosnian Croats and Muslims in 1992 in 20 BH municipalities. The crimes were committed by the Bosnian Serb police. The prosecution has tried to prove that Stanisic and Zupljanin were part of a joint criminal enterprise involving the cooperation of the army and the police to expel Croats and Muslims from the territory that was supposed to be part of the Serb state according to the plans.

Mico Stanisic’s defense is set to deliver its opening statement and to examine its first witness on 11 April 2011.

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