Kovacevic trial delayed

Start of proceedings against Nikola Kovacevic put off due to judge’s illness.

The start of war crimes proceedings against Nikola Kovacevic at the Bosnia and Herzegovina State Court has been delayed because one of the judges hearing the case is ill.

Kovacevic is accused of participating in attacks against non-Serb civilians in the Bosanska Krajina area, notably in the Sanski Most municipality, from April to August 1992. He is said to have been a member of a unit known as the Serb Defence Forces, SOS, at the time, which later became a special unit within the local Serb territorial defence organisation.

Prosecutors claim that Kovacevic detained civilians in the Betonirka facility, where they were tortured. He is also accused of transporting civilians from holding centres at the Hasan Kikic primary school, a local secondary school and a police station within the Betonirka complex to the Manjaca concentration camp.

In transit, the detainees were allegedly tortured, beaten up and physically assaulted. Some apparently disappeared without trace.

Prosecutors at the State Court took over Kovacevic’s case from the Bihac Canton Court last September.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges in late January this year.