Vlajic: A witness at Arsic’s trial gave different answers to the same questions

Attorney Nebojsa Vlajic, defense counsel for Dusko Arsic, stated that today’s hearing was an opportunity to hear a witness who gave different answers to the same questions.

“Today we listened to an elderly man, a witness who in at least four statements so far has not been able to say a single sentence in the same way twice. We saw that again today. He was not even able, in one testimony given today, to stick to a single consistent account, but answered the same questions differently,” Vlajic said.

Commenting on the first-instance verdict against Arsic, the Humanitarian Law Center in Pristina assessed that a practice is being established in war crimes verdicts in which the concrete actions of the accused are not determined, but are instead generalized as the actions of a group, creating the impression that one member of a group is being convicted for the incriminating actions of other individuals.

On this issue, Vlajic emphasized that today what matters is “hearsay.”

“The main thing is hearsay. Today the last question to the second witness was what they had heard in the village about the event that occurred. What does it matter what they heard in the village? What I may have heard about the judge of this court is no evidence at all,” Vlajic added.

Asked how relevant that is, Vlajic stressed that it should not be, because it has no significance.

“We have seen in many cases that it was considered relevant, but it should not have any significance, because that is the evidentiary value, the evidentiary power of hearsay, which is equal to zero,” Vlajic said.

Dusko Arsic was sentenced at first instance to 13 years in prison, but the Court of Appeal annulled the verdict and returned the case for a retrial.