Banožić's trial continues in June, court rejects most defense proposals

Former Defense Minister Mario Banožić said at the start of his trial at the Vinkovci Municipal Court on Wednesday that he does not feel guilty for causing the traffic accident that killed Goran Šarić, the driver of a van that Banožić collided with on the Vinkovci-Županja road on November 11, 2023.

The trial against Mario Banožić was supposed to begin in March of this year, but the Vinkovci Municipal Court judge assigned to his case, Davorka Rukavina, was on sick leave. The indictment took a little over five months to be filed, and two days after the first anniversary of the tragedy, the indictment was confirmed, on November 13 last year.

Judge Davorka Rukavina said that the panel believes that most of the defense proposals are not relevant to the court proceedings, such as the statement of witness Mirko Đalić to journalist Andrija Jarko.

“The only thing that matters is what the witness stated in the evidentiary proceedings,” Rukavina said, adding that there is no need to reconstruct the event.

However, the council accepted the hearing of the witnesses of the police officers Ivica Baotić, Zoran Babić and Josip Maričić, the truck driver Mirko Đalić and the expert witness Dražen Jeđud, who established the facts at the scene of the accident, but did not make a report.

The hearing of Mirko Đalić was requested by the defense because, as explained, it is significantly different from the testimony of the policemen who were on duty during the investigation. She also requested that a CD and DVD containing 164 photos from the accident site and a situation plan be included in the official files.

“We are asking for these media to be obtained from the police and included in the official files, and it is not clear to us why this is being refused,” said Banožić's lawyer Ksenija Vržina, but the council rejected her request.

Unofficially, she said that the blood of the deceased Šarić contained more than 2 per mille of alcohol, and its presence was also recorded in the aqueous humor and urine.

“The evidentiary proposals for the hearing of key witnesses have been accepted. Then we have a reconstruction of the event. I believe that after hearing the expert witness, the court will decide on further evidentiary proposals in terms of ordering a new expert examination and a combined one, which we proposed. The expert witness of the Ivan Vučetić Center determined that the deceased Šarić was absolutely unfit to drive, he was drunk, I will not say what amount of alcohol was involved, that may be determined during the proceedings, so you will hear. I think that a traffic expert cannot, but a medical expert should, determine whether he could have driven, whether he was sober or perhaps fell asleep. That gentleman was not even buckled up,” said Ksenija Vržina, attorney for Mario Banožić.

A new hearing has been announced for June 26 at 9:30.

Source: HRT