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The Bosnian State Court has sentenced Albina Terzic, a former member of the Croatian Defence Council, to five years in prison for crimes against Bosnian Serb civilians illegally detained in the northern Bosnian town of Odzak in 1992.
The Trial Chamber of the Bosnian State Court found Terzic guilty of inhumanely treating prisoners held in the Odazk elementary school and the Strolit factory buildings in the summer of 1992.
According to the verdict, Terzic beat Bosnian Serb prisoners, let a dog loose on them and tortured, abused and molested them in other ways.
Tezics actions represent a breach of the Geneva convention on protection of civilians. The physical abuse of prisoners was not justified especially considering that the prisoners were unarmed, said the presiding judge of the Trial Chamber, Saban Maksumic.
The court did not accept Terzics alibi. The judges did not have any doubt that she was the persons who abused the prisoners in the Strolit factory and the school building.
Terzic was found not guilty on one count of the indictment which charged her with forcing the protected witness AB2 to have a sexual intercourse with a mentally ill female prisoner.
The Council has no doubts this event took place, but we cannot find beyond a reasonable doubt that Albina Terzic took part in it, said Judge Maksumic.
This verdict can be appealed before the Appeals Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
