Prijedor defendents to face Court within a month
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Judges have ruled that four Serb war crimes suspects referred from The Hague tribunal to face trial in Bosnia will appear at their first hearing before the State Court in Sarajevo within a month.
Zeljko Mejakic, Momcilo Gruban, Dusan Fustar and Dusko Knezevic were transferred to Bosnia from The Hague on May 9. They are accused of committing war crimes at the Omarska and Keraterm detention camps, in the Prijedor municipality.
Bosnian prosecutors now have a maximum of 30 days to adapt The Hague indictment against them in order to bring it into line with local legislation.
Between May and August 1992, the Bosnian Serb authorities imprisoned more than 7,000 Bosniak and Croats in the notorious Keraterm, Omarska and Trnopolje detention camps.
According to the indictment filed in The Hague, Mejakic was the commander of the Omarska camp and Gruban was a shift commander there, while Fustar was a shift commander at Keraterm. Hague
investigators say Knezevic had no official position at either camp, but was authorised to enter the facilities.
The decision to transfer this case to Bosnia’s State Court was made by judges in The Hague on July 20, 2005. The referral of indictments to courts in the Balkans is part of plans to wind down the work of The Hague tribunal over the next few years.
Other individuals previously found guilty by the Hague tribunal of crimes in the Omarska and Keraterm camps include Miroslav Kvocka, Milojica Kos, Mlado Radic, Zoran Zigic, Dragoljub Prcac, Dusko Sikirica, Damir Dosen and Dragan Kolundzija.
