Bosniak Soldiers’ Retrial For Serb Prisoner Abuse Opens

“The prosecution will prove that Selimovic, Ruznic and Mustafic committed the crimes they are charged with,” prosecutor Gordana Tadic told the Sarajevo court on Wednesday.

All three former Bosnian Army servicemen are charged with having enabled and personally participated in the physical and mental abuse of detainees while they were working as interrogators at the Luka, Adil Besic and Hotel Park detention centres in the north-western town of Bihac, as well as the Rad auto-repair shop in Cazin between 1994 and 1996.

The indictment charges Selimovic and Mustafic with crimes against the civilian population and prisoners of war, and Ruznic with crimes against prisoners of war.

According to the charges, Selimovic was a desk officer for counter-intelligence affairs and deputy head of the security department of the Fifth Corps of the Bosnian Army, Ruznic was a deputy commander in the security services and Mustafic was a military policeman.

The three men have denied abusing prisoners.

“What my client did was morally superior [to killing the detainees], because everybody stayed alive. They had adequate treatment [in the detention centres],” said Asim Crnalic, defence lawyer for Selimovic.

“What hit the detainees in a psychological sense is beyond the content of this indictment. The detainees suffered the worst damage during their actual capture,” Crnalic said.

Bajramovic and Veladzic’s lawyers also said they would prove that their clients did not commit the crimes with which they are charged.

The men were originally convicted in 2012 and sentenced to a total of 25 years in jail, but the appeals court quashed the verdict last December and sent their case for retrial.

The trial is due to continue on February 19.