Former Muslim fighter testifying against ex-army chief in Bosnia case

Former Muslim fighter testifying against ex-army chief in Bosnia case
Agence France Presse – English - February 25, 2005 Friday 2:25 PM GMT

BANJA LUKA Feb 25 - A Bahrain national convicted of terrorism in Bosnia who fought alongside the country's Muslim-led army during the 1992-95 war, is ready to testify against a Muslim commander charged by the UN war crimes court, his lawyer said Friday.

"My client Ali Ahmed Ali Hamad, a former commander of a detachment of the El Mujaheed unit in Bosnia, is willing to testify about crimes that Mujaheedins have committed during the war," said lawyer Dusko Tomic.

"He is willing to testify in (Rasim) Delic's trial and every other related to crimes committed by Mujaheedins."

Rasim Delic, the Bosnian Muslim wartime army commander, is charged by The Hague-based UN tribunal for war crimes committed by the El Mujaheed unit of foreign Islamic volunteers against Croats and Serbs between 1993 and 1995.

Ali Hamad, 35, is serving a 12 and half years prison term in the Bosnian town of Zenica. He was detained in 1997 and found guilty the following year of committing a terrorist attack by planting a car bomb in Mostar.

Tomic said that he had Thursday sent a letter from his client to the UN court investigators in which he said he was willing to testify.

In the letter, Ali Ahmed also describes some of the crimes committed against Serb and Bosnian Croat civilians and two foreigners, believed to be British journalists, the lawyer added.

Under the 1995 Bosnian international peace accords, all foreign fighters were ordered to leave Bosnia, but some stayed and obtained citizenship.

Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States, several former Islamic fighters were detained in Bosnia on suspicion of being linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.