Pelemis and Peric: Custody Replaced with Prohibiting Measures

Pelemis is not allowed to leave his place of residence without prior consent from the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His travel documents have been confiscated. Also, he is banned from using his personal identification card from crossing the state border.“The indictee is ordered to report to the Police Station in Zvornik each Friday,” the Public Relations Section of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina said. Pelemis was arrested, along with Slavko Peric, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for having assisted in the commission of genocide, at the beginning of November 2008. In mid-October the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Defence of Pelemis and Peric presented their appeals against the first instance verdict before the Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prosecutor Erik Larson called for longer imprisonment sentences, while the Defence teams called for a verdict of release or retrial, claiming that the first instance trial was not fair. The Appellate Chamber has still not rendered its decision concerning the appeals.Pelemis, former Deputy Commander of the First Battalion with Zvornik Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, and Peric, former Assistant Commander for Security with that same Brigade, were pronounced guilty, in November 2011, of having assisted in the murder of at least 1,000 Bosniak men in the Zvornik area, or more precisely in the Cultural Centre in Pilica and on Branjevo farm.In their appeals the Defence attorneys said that the indictees did not know that the men, who were detained in Kula school building and the Cultural Centre in Pilica, would be killed.

A.J.