Nikacevic: Indictment confirmed

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has confirmed the indictment filed by the State Prosecution against Miodrag Nikacevic, charging him with crimes against humanity committed in the Foca area during 1992.

Nikacevic, who works as a policeman in Foca, has been held under custody since February 14 this year.

The indictment alleges that he was a member of the Serbian forces in Foca during the war and that he participated in “a broad and systematic attack” against Bosniaks. The two-count indictment describes the crimes charged upon him.

The Prosecution considers that, in April 1992 Nikacevic, who was uniformed and armed, used force to rob and rape one woman. He is also charged with having abused and raped another woman in Foca in July 1992. In the course of the investigation it was determined that both women still suffered the consequences of those crimes.

The second count in the indictment alleges that, on August 2, 1992 he came, “armed with an automatic gun, together with two other members of the Republika Srpska armed forces,” to a family house in Humsko village, took one man away, interrogated him and then handed him over to the Foca Correctional Facility, where he was held and then taken to an unknown location and killed.

The Prosecution informed the Court that it planned to examine nine witnesses and one court expert and it also proposed a number of pieces of material evidence.

In the course of the examination, it was determined that the two victims, allegedly raped by Nikacevic, had lived in the same building in which he had lived prior to the war and for some time during the war and that they both identified him.

The Prosecution filed a custody extension motion with the Court, considering that the indictee might attempt to influence the witnesses, and in particular the women who claim that he had raped them and who would appear as witnesses at the trial.