Kapic: Retrial ordered

The Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina upheld the Prosecution’s appeal, revoking the verdict against Suad Kapic and ordering a retrial to be conducted.

By the first instance verdict, Kapic, former member of the Third Battalion of the 517th Cazin Brigade with the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was acquitted of the charges that he committed war crimes against prisoners of war in the Sanski most area. The indictment alleged that Kapic, “acting jointly with other soldiers of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Army”, participated in the capture of six members of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, on September 18, 1995.

The first instance Chamber determined that it had not been “proved, beyond reasonable doubt”, that indictee Kapic had killed three prisoners, severely wounded one and then ordered another soldier to kill the wounded.

The first instance verdict was pronounced on April 29 this year. The Prosecution filed an appeal in June, pointing to “substantial violations of the Criminal Proceedings Code, as well as to wrongly and incompletely determined factual status”.

The Defence said that the Prosecution’s appeal was “ungrounded”, calling upon the Court to confirm the first instance verdict.

Pronouncing the verdict of release, the Trial Chamber explained that “the State Prosecution has not proved, beyond reasonable doubt, the factual description contained in the indictment and the indictee’s identity, after having failed to conduct an identification procedure”.