Prosecutor Demands Custody for Extradited Bosnian Serb

Prosecutor Dubravko Campara asked the Sarajevo court on Friday to remand Cvetkovic, who is suspected of being a member of a firing squad that killed at least 900 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica at Branjevo farm near the town of Zvornik in July 1995.

The prosecutor said that Cvetkovic, a former member of the Tenth Saboteur Squad of the Bosnian Serb Army, left Bosnia ten years ago for Israel and did not return until he was extradited on Thursday.

“I propose to the state court to remand Cvetkovic in custody. If he was to be released, he would most certainly leave Bosnia again,” said Campara.

Before the mass execution at Branjevo farm, Campara said, the suspect took part in the Bosnian Serb attack on Srebrenica in early July 1995 and then, several days later, in the actual seizing of the UN-protected enclave.

Defence lawyer Petko Pavlovic argued however that Cvetkovic was not on the Bosnian Serb Army’s list of members of the Tenth Saboteur Squad who were sent to Srebrenica, and that he was not mentioned in evidence at other trials regarding the Branjevo farm killings.

The lawyer also said that the suspect was not hiding in Israel, where he lived with his wife and two children since 2006.

“He was not on the run. Family circumstances and the economic situation led him to Israel,” said Pavlovic, adding that the suspect visited Bosnia in 2008.

Pavlovic said his client should be released from custody under restrictive measures such as house arrest.

Cvetkovic is the seventh member of the Tenth Saboteur Squad to be prosecuted over the Branjevo farm massacre. Another six members of the firing squad were sentenced to a total of 127 years of prison.

An international warrant has been issued for the arrest of a further suspect, Brano Gojkovic.

The Sarajevo court will make a decision about whether to remand Cvetkovic at a later date.