Two out of five people accused of covering up the evidence of the unexplained death of 22-year-old Dzenan Memic in 2016 were sentenced to a total of five-and-a-half years in prison in a re-trial before the court’s Appeal Council on Friday.
Alisa Mutap, Memic’s ex-girlfriend, who has since married and is now Alisa Ramic, and Hasan Dupovac, former member of the Sarajevo police, were jailed for two-and-a-half and three years respectively.
Ramic was with Memic on the night he died, but told the investigation she did not remember what happened that night.
The other accused were her father, Zijad Mutap, Sarajevo police force members Hasan Dupovac and Josip Baric, and the receptionist of the Crystal Hotel, which was near the site of Memic’s death, Muamer Ozegovic.
Mutap was sentenced for providing false testimony while Dupovac was sentenced for abuse of power or office.
Dzenan’s father, Muriz Memic, said the family was “generally happy with the verdict”.
“Hasan Dupovac is going to prison. The whole time this man kept saying that we were lying. We maintained that we were not lying,” he stated. Regarding Alisa Mutap’s “amnesia” claim, Memić said he knew she didn’t have amnesia.
“We all knew that she didn’t have it and that she was lying. It was eventually proven, and that’s why she’s going to prison,” he added.
The indictment charged the accused with organised crime, obstruction of evidence and providing false testimony. All five were acquitted of participating in an organised crime group.
In the first-instance verdict, Bosnia’s top court acquitted all five. But that verdict was overturned by the court’s Appeal Council in March this year, which instructed a new trial.
Memic died on February 15, 2016, following his admission to a hospital in Sarajevo due to severe injuries sustained a week before.
According to the prosecutor’s office, he was injured in a traffic accident. However, his family contested this explanation, highlighting numerous irregularities and orchestrating public protests. Numerous street protests have been held since 2016 where Memic’s family demanded justice.
The prosecution originally accused Ljubo and Bekrija Seferovic, members of the Roma community, of killing Memic with a van in the Ilidza municipality of Sarajevo.
But they were acquitted twice by the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo. Both verdicts were then annulled by the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of Bosnia’s two entities, which finally upheld their acquittals in July 2021.
The cause of Memic’s death, as well as perpetrators, had remained unknown until now.
This verdict can be appealed.
Source : Balkan Insight
