here - Humanitarian Law Center/Fond za humanitarno pravo

completed in a much shorter time. Such conduct on the part of the TRZ negatively affected the
already weak motivation of potential witnesses from Kosovo to come to court and take part in
judicial proceedings.
The trial chamber in this case has acted in a highly professional manner, showing an in-depth
familiarity with the case files, has decisively dealt with various procedural issues that have arisen
and successfully managed these complex proceedings.
1.2. Skočić 39
The Higher Court in Belgrade 40 have been conducting the criminal proceedings against Damir
Bogdanović, Zoran Stojanović, Tomislav Gavrić, Đorđe Šević, Zoran Alić, Zoran Đurđević and
Dragan Đekić for committing the criminal act of war crime against the civilian population. 41 In
2012, 15 trial days were held, over the course of which 26 witnesses were heard.
Course of proceedings
On 4 December 2012, the TRZ 42 filed an amended indictment, 43 according to which the
defendants are alleged, as members of the ‘Simini četnici’ (Simo's Chetniks) unit, fighting on the
Serbian side in the BiH conflict under the command of the late Simo Bogdanović, to have, on 12
July 1992, in the village of Skočić (in the municipality of Zvornik), destroyed the mosque and the
house of Hamdija Ribić, a Roma, with explosives and rounded up villagers of Roma ethnicity,
including children, women and adult men. The defendants then took away all their valuables, and
beat them with their fists, feet, rifle butts and other objects, killing one man. Two men – a
grandfather and his grandson – were ordered to undress and perform oral sex on one another
while injured parties ‘Alfa’, ‘Beta’ and ‘Gama’, two of whom were minors, were repeatedly
raped. In the end, all of them were taken on a truck to the neighboring village of Malešić (in the
municipality of Zvornik) where ‘Alfa’, ‘Beta’ and ‘Gama’ were separated from the group, forced
into slave labor and sexually abused until January 1993. The remaining 28 Roma civilians were
39 KPo2-42/10.
40 Members of the trial chamber: judge Rastko Popović (presiding), judge Vinka Beraha Nikičević and judge
Snežana Nikolić-Garotić.
41 Article 142 (1) of the CC of the FRY, as a co-perpetrator, and Article 22 of the CC of the FRY.
42 Deputy War Crimes Prosecutor Milan Petrović.
43 The amended indictment provided a more detailed description of the particular actions carried out in the
commission of the crime by each of the accused and increased the number of victims from 22, listed in the initial
indictment, to a total of 28. All of the killed family members of the injured party Zija Ribić were included – parents,
a brother and six sisters. In addition, the consolidated indictment included three earlier versions as the defendants
Zoran Alić, Zoran Đurđević and Dragana Đekić were indicted only later, in the course of the trial.
20