Errors in legal procedure: In short he has been charged with crimes against civilian population and genocide. Namely, the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague on June 15, 1999, approved opening of an investigation based on the aforementioned charges. However, evidence for the charges hasn't been found in the investigation. If Bosnia-Hercegovina was a normal state with the rule of law, Buzuk would have been released from prison at that point. In order to prevent that, ignoring the lack of evidence and lodged appeals and complaints by the defense regarding the lack of jurisdiction of the court, Sarajevo cantonal prosecutor decided to widen the scope of the investigation and charge Buzuk with additional crimes (this time without an approval by the Hague Tribunal). What followed then, according to the defense attorneys, consisted of a whole series of errors in the legal procedure that are admitted to even by the court. Such a situation led to the postponement of the start of the trial and the extension of the time Buzuk had to spend in custody. After all, it seems that the evidence for Buzuk's indictment is rather shaky. An indication of that are the statements of the first five prosecution witnesses, who testified in front of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo on September 17. Another seven prosecution witnesses failed to respond to the court summons to testify.
Denied statements: It is interesting that all the witnesses denied their statements given during the investigation. The indictment issued on May 16, 2001, states that Meho Hodzic from the Kresevo village of Crnici stated that Vlatko Buzuk was one of the policemen who participated in mass arrests of Bosniaks in Kresevo. In the court, on the other hand, he said that he did not know who took parts in the mentioned arrests and that he was not sure whether Vlatko Buzuk had taken part in them. He recalled that rumors about that had circulated through the town. He did not know who had spread those rumors.
"Some people said that some people from Kresevo, and Vlatko Buzuk may have been one of them, participated in the looting of Bosniak houses," the second witness, Adem Lusija, said. Statements of other witnesses also boiled down to hearsay, and the funniest of all testimonies were those by Atif Pucalic and Abdulah Popara.
The former said that he had no idea who Vlatko Buzuk was and that he had spent the whole war in the village of Rotilj near Kiseljak, his birthplace, while the latter replied to the request of judge Muhamed Podrug to identify Vlatko Buzuk in by aimlessly looking all over the courtroom. In the end, with a smile, he said "Buzuk is probably the one in the dock".
Only witnesses know why they decided to change their statements. However, the reply to the question why Vlatko Buzuk who, according to his defense attorney Nikica Grzic, is not implicated in any specific criminal act by the statements of all 56 prosecution witnesses, is still being held in custody is missing. His defense attorney claims that he used all the legal means to get his client out of jail. He appealed even to the Supreme Court of Federation BH, BH Human Rights Court, and all those who could have helped him to prove that the charges against his client are baseless.
"Everyone ignored our appeals, as well as the fact that Buzuk has been kept for more than a year in prison without knowledge of what specifically he is being charged with," Nikica Grzic, Buzuk's defense attorney says. Namely, in the statements witnesses confirmed the existence of two camps for Bosniak prisoners and soldiers in Kresevo during the war in Central Bosnia. According to the witnesses, strong prisoners were taken from the camps to dig trenches on the front. However, not a single testimony mentions Vlatko Buzuk in connection with these acts. The trial of Vlatko Buzuk will be continued on October 12, and judge Podrug announced the possibility that police will be asked to bring witnesses to the court.