Friday, 2 january 2026.
Prijavite se na sedmični newsletter Detektora
Newsletter
Novinari Detektora svake sedmice pišu newslettere o protekloj i sedmici koja nas očekuje. Donose detalje iz redakcije, iskrene reakcije na priče i kontekst o događajima koji oblikuju našu stvarnost.

This post is also available in: Bosnian

“I am saying with 100 per cent certainty that he did not rape anybody,” said Vojka Dragicevic, testifying before the Sarajevo court on Wednesday.

“He would not hurt anybody because he is a wonderful father and husband,” she said.

The indictment charges Dragicevic, a former serviceman with the Bosnian Serb Army, with having committed crimes, including rape, torture, robberies and assaults, against non-Serb civilians in the Grbavica, Kovacici and Vraca neighbourhoods of Sarajevo from May 1992 to December 1994.

Dragicevic’s wife said that for some of that period, however, he was in the town of Pale.

“I came to Pale in October 1992 after having been informed that Zoran was wounded. We stayed in the vicinity of Pale until the fall of 1993, when Zoran returned to Grbavica,” she said.

She added she left the country with her husband in the spring of 1994.

Dragicevic is accused of committing some of his alleged crimes with Veselin ‘Batko’ Vlahovic, who was jailed for 45 years in March for 60 war crimes including around 35 murders and 11 rapes.

Dragicevic’s wife however said that she did not know Vlahovic.

“I know that he did some things that he should not have done. Zoran told me that he would have stopped him, had he been able to do it,” she said.

Interior ministry employee Aida Risljanin also testified about the rape accusation at the hearing on Wednesday.

Risljanin confirmed that she took a statement from a protected witness in the trial, codenamed A-1, who claimed to have been raped by Dragicevic on July 14, 1993.

“I remember the witness because she was crying the whole time,” Risljanin said.

A-1 testified in April that Dragicevic took her to his apartment, where they had sexual intercourse, but that he was “not violent”.

During the hearing, defence attorney Dusko Tomic requested that the rape charge be reclassified, saying that it was not a crime against humanity.

The trial is due to continue on September 4.

Najčitanije
Saznajte više
Bosnian Detektor Journalists Awarded for Reporting on Srebrenica Elderly
Journalists Azra Husaric Omerovic and Lejla Memcic Heric are this year’s recipients of an award for professional reporting given by the Nas Most Association, for a photographic report on Srebrenica mothers who restored their village by their own will and means.
Detektor Journalist Shortlisted for Fetisov International Journalism Award
A story about obtaining the right to justice for victims of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina was one of two articles by Detektor journalist Emina Dizdarevic Tahmiscija which have been shortlisted for the Fetisov International Journalism Award for 2025.
BIRN BiH Presents Database and Film on Wartime Missing Children
BIRN BiH Director Wins ‘Goran Bubalo’ Peace Award