Media Coverage

Legal system, media have failed good, decent and innocent man
By Chanda Hidanovic
03/28/2007

This letter is to those of you who are walking through life with your eyes closed:

I am 33 years old and never paid much attention to everything going on around me.
I figured if it didn’t affect me directly then it wasn’t worth the energy to worry about it. That has all changed. It took something terrible to happen to my family and I am now awake. I am not going to stop talking about it until I wake up other people. Until every one starts to listen.

My husband was convicted of a crime he did not commit. We had faith in our system when he was charged. I truly believed that there was no way an innocent person could sit in jail.  I believed everything I read in the paper and saw on the news. I had no reason not to.

We have all heard the “my husband is innocent” story before but to validate us we even took polygraph tests to prove we are telling the truth. No one seems to care. The Fargo Forum did a wonderful job of making my husband look like a violent criminal. The articles were not accurate. His picture, name and address were plastered all over the nightly news and the newspaper coloring him in a dark light. This was not innocent until proven guilty. 

If you all believe that our system is flawless then you are horribly mistaken.  If you really believe there are not innocent people in jail you are again horribly mistaken!  If you think this cannot ever you then you are wrong. I never thought in a million years that this could happen to my own family.

I’ve seen the TV programs were someone is released from prison after 10 years because DNA evidence cleared him. Well in our case there was no physical evidence. No fingerprints were taken off the bat. No blood on his clothes. I would assume if one was ‘engaged in a riot while armed’ your clothes would be dirty, torn or have blood splattered.  

My husband Mevludin is actually opposite of all of these accusations. He is very sweet and shy.  His friends would describe him as the guy who is always there for you. He is the first one to borrow you money when you need it, to help you move and fix your car for you.  He has been crying everyday in jail and has lost 25 pounds now. 

This letter is not only to tell you all to open your eyes and see what is going on but to also thank you for the hate mail at my home. People are giving us the finger and telling us to go back to our country.

This is my country and I am awake now. I grew up in this area. There are good and bad people in every culture. The United States has people derived from every country. 

The Bosnian people in this area are working all of the jobs we don’t want to. They are cleaning hotel rooms, cooking your food and standing in a production line for ten hours a night.

By the way for those of you geographically challenged, Bosnia is in the former Yugoslavia which is in Europe.

I am proudly Mevludin’s American wife. I have never felt so strongly to stand up for any one in my life. Take a moment to listen what is going on around you.  

Hidanovic, Fargo, is Mevludin Hidanovic's wife.