Jankovic: Additional indictment confirmed

Bosnia’s War Crimes Chamber on Tuesday confirmed an additional indictment against Gojko Jankovic,who is already on trial for war crimes committed in Foca in 1992 and 1993.

The former Bosnian Serb soldier is on trial accused of murder and rape among other crimes.The new indictment holds him responsible for the rape of another Bosniak woman from the eastern Bosnian town.

The indictment claims that between April 1992 and February 1993, Jankovic – as a leader of a paramilitary group – “ordered, committed, assisted or encouraged the rape of one woman of Bosniak nationality”.

The prosecution further claims that “in the period between April 7, 1992 and the beginning of May of the same year”, Jankovic and two more persons came into “a Muslim house where protected witness E lived, where they forced her to have sex in such way that Jankovic and an unidentified soldier held her, while a third person raped her”.

It is further stated in the fresh indictment that Jankovic came back to the same house and raped a girl known as pseudonym E. At the end of May, he and another person arrested E and took her to the Partizan sports hall in Foca, where she was detained for a few weeks with other women. She was raped here by other soldiers, the indictment reads.

The accused is expected to enter a plea to the new charges in the next few days.

Justice Report has been told that the prosecution has not yet filed a motion for merging of the two indictments, but such a move is expected.

Jankovic was initially charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In late 2005, the ICTY transferred this case to the War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo in accordance with its completion strategy.

The ICTY’s indictment was adjusted to the local law and confirmed by the War Crimes Chamber on February 20 this year. The trial started on April 21.