Convicted war criminal Milan Lukic claimed this week that two men were plotting to poison him while he awaits his appeals hearing in The Hague.
Lukic, a Bosnian Serb former reserve policeman, said that during the war these men had committed many crimes in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad - the same place where, among other felonies, Lukic was found to have burned alive over 100 Bosniaks trapped in barricaded houses.
Lukic said he received information that his “life is in danger” from other detainees at the United Nations detention facility who apparently personally know these men, who he said live in Serbia.
The two men allegedly threatening Lukic’s life were “accusing others of their crimes so that innocent people are rotting away in jails in Sarajevo and The Hague”, he said.
Lukic asked the judges to order the prosecution of these men who, he said, were trying to “get rid” of him, apparently by using poison.
“I am not afraid of dying,” he said. “…I’ve always fought for justice and truth. [My] only battle is to uncover the truth about crimes committed against innocent Muslim people in Visegrad.”
“I hope I am alive by the time I appear in court next time,” he told presiding Judge Mehmet Guney.
“Of course we all wish for you to be alive at the next status conference, and at the next one after that,” remarked Judge Guney. He said that while he “took note” of Lukic’s concerns, the defendant could always relay them to the commanding officer of the detention unit or to the court registrar.
The judge added that because of the heavy work load of the appeals chamber, the official appeals hearing for Lukic’s case would probably not occur until the end of May, despite previous projections that it would take place much earlier in the year.
Lukic was convicted in July 2009 of personally killing at least 132 Bosniak civilians in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad during the summer of 1992.
Milan Lukic was sentenced to life in prison, while his cousin Sredoje Lukic, who was tried alongside him for some of the same crimes, was given 30 years.
During this week’s hearing, prosecutors said they had new information regarding the deaths of six of the victims and they would disclose this to the defence after receiving permission from “the body who gave it to us”.
Meanwhile, Milan Lukic is seeking to introduce evidence on appeal that a woman called Ismeta Kurspahic – who judges determined he murdered in a house burning on Pionirska Street – did not die in the way the indictment and trial judgement stated.
A motion filed in January stated that the defence team received information from the Bosnian authorities – the details of which remain confidential – that show that Kurspahic “was alive after the date of the alleged Pionirska incident”.
In addition, they say that her body was not discovered with other victims of the incident, and was located some distance from Pionirska Street.
This information was not available during the trial, which took place during 2008 and the first part of 2009, because Kurspahic’s remains were not exhumed until late 2009 and not identified until December 2010, the motion states.
Numerous witnesses named Kurspahic as one of the victims of the fire, but the Lukic defence claims that if this new evidence had been available during the proceedings, the judges would have found that those witnesses “were not witnesses of truth” as regards this incident.
Judges have not yet ruled on whether this new evidence will be admissible, but said they will do so prior to the appeals hearing.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
