here - Humanitarian Law Center/Fond za humanitarno pravo

taken to a pit in the Hamzići area, in the village of Šetić, where they were taken from the truck
one by one and killed with firearms. Their bodies were then thrown into the pit. Twenty-seven
civilians were killed in this incident, including seven children and one woman in the later stages
of pregnancy. Eight-year-old Zija Ribić, an injured party in the case, was wounded. 44
In 2012, following the issue of an indictment against Zoran Đurđević 45 and Dragana Đekić 46 , the
criminal proceedings against them were merged with proceedings previously initiated against
Simo Bogdanović et al.
Testifying in their own defense, Zoran Đurđević and Dragana Đekić, denied having committed
the criminal acts that they were charged with. Zoran Đurđević argued that he had joined ‘Simo`s
Chetnics’, stationed in Malešić at the time, after being released from prison in Bijeljina in the
second half of June 1992, at the request of the late Simo Bogdanović. He claimed not to have
participated in any actions, as he had served in the unit for only one month before leaving for
Serbia.
Dragana Đekic stated that she had joined ‘Simo`s Chetnics’ in May or June 1992, as a nurse. At
that time, Simo Bogdanović, the commander of the unit, and indictees Zoran Alić and Đorđe
Šević were already with the unit, whereas Damir Bogdanović joined in August 1992. Đekić did
not remember other members of the unit. Three girls, Sena, 47 Dina and Munevera, were held in
captivity by the unit, but Đekić could not explain how they got there. She stated that members of
the unit raped and ill-treated them,something she had been told by the injured parties themselves.
When Đekić asked them who had done that to them, they replied “all of them.” In the witness’s
opinion, Sena, Dina and Munevera were the protected witnesses ‘Alfa’, ‘Beta’ and ‘Gama’, since
there had been no other women prisoners at the time.
The proceedings against the indictee Simo Bogdanović ended following his death on 28 August
2012.
The most important witnesses questioned in 2012 were the protected witnesses/injured parties
‘Alfa’, ‘Beta’ and ‘Gama’, whose detailed and moving account of the events in the village of
Skočić and the rapes and sexual abuse they endured in Malešić, contributed greatly to
establishing the factual background and corroborated the testimony of the injured party, Zija
Ribić, about the events in Skočić. Describing the rapes they endured on a daily basis, the
protected witness ‘Alfa’ stated: “They made me watch them rape my nieces, ‘Beta’ and ‘Gama’,
44 In 2008, the HLC submitted to the TRZ a criminal complaint against Sima Bogdanović et al, for the criminal
offense of war crime against the civilian population, which contained the statement of the sole survivor, Zija Ribić.
45 On 4 June 2012, the same court delivered a first instance judgment in the Bijeljina case, sentencing Zoran
Đurđević to 13 years in prison for a war crime against the civilian population, committed on 14 June 1992 in
Bijeljina.
46 On 22 December 2011, the TRZ filed an indictment for the same criminal offense against Zoran Đurđević and
Dragana Djekic, who were subsequently identified.
47 Senija Bećirević, now the common-law partner of indictee Tomislav Gavrić.
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