Bruno Franjic, witness at Rako Mladic trial

The prosecution case on the Tomasica mass grave continued today with the testimony of ballistic expert Bruno Franjic. The witness is the head of the Sector of Ballistic and Mechanical Expertise in the Center for Forensics and Support of the Federal Police Administration in Sarajevo. Franjic drafted two expert reports on the shells and bullets found during the exhumation of the mass grave and during the post mortems of the exhumed bodies in the Šejkovača Center for Post Mortems and Identification.

The expert reports were prepared at the behest of the BH prosecution in March and April 2014. Franjic performed ballistic analysis of shells and bullets found in the grave and in the post mortems in the bodies. The bullets were fired from seven different types of firearms, Franjic concluded. They were the Kalashnikov automatic rifles, the Crvena Zastava M-70 automatic rifles, the Crvena Zastava M-72 machine guns, the Crvena Zastava M59/66 semi-automatic rifles and three different pistols of different caliber.

In a bid to challenge Franjic’s credibility Mladic’s defense counsel Dragan Ivetic spent a significant part of the cross-examination focusing on the witness’s CV. Ivetic wanted to know the minutest details, such as Franjic’s membership in the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners, and his training and education. After a series of such questions, presiding judge Orie told the defense counsel to focus on the details of the expert report before he asked the witness about the building in Madrid where one such course took place.

Defense counsel Ivetic asked the witness where the shells and bullets were stored before they were submitted for ballistic analysis. The witness wasn’t able to reply to the question. Franjic only said that the boxes and bags with shells and bullets had not been sealed in the usual manner. They were stapled shut. Franjic rejected the defense counsel’s suggestion that he had been instructed to produce his report ‘as soon as possible’. According to Franjic, he was given 45 days to complete the reports. He knew that the findings of his analysis would be used in the case against Ratko Mladic.

The defense will complete the cross-examination of Bruno Franjic next week.

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