Serbs’ Alleged Killers Sent for Sarajevo Trial

The case of Semir Alukic and Fikret Hirkic, who are accused of involvement in two murders and two attempted murders of civilians in 1992 near the Bosnian town of Prijedor, was transferred to the state court from the Banja Luka district court on Tuesday.

Alukic, with five other people, is accused of taking part in the murder of one of the civilians, identified only by the initials ‘B.O.’, on the main road from Prijedor to Banja Luka.

“Alukic and his associates on August 29, 1992, came down from the woods at the Kozara mountain into the village of Kozarac. When five to ten minutes later a car came by, driven by B.O. from Prijedor, they fired several shots and killed the driver and then set the vehicle on fire,” says the indictment.

On the same day, the indictment says, Alukic and Hirkic, along with another seven people, opened fire on Serb houses in Podgradje near Prijedor.

They killed a civilian identified as ‘B.I.’ from Podrgadje, and tried to kill ‘D.S.’ and her daughter ‘S.S.’, who both managed to escape.

After that they set B.I.’s house on fire, with his body inside.

Alukic and Hirkic pleaded not guilty in June.

The Banja Luka district court proclaimed itself not competent to hear the case because, according to the Bosnian state strategy for processing war crimes cases, courts in the country’s two entities can only try cases launched before March 2003, while all other cases must be heard by the state court.