Bosnian Boxing Star Denies Wartime Crimes

“Honourable court, I plead not guilty,” former boxer Peljto, one of Bosnia’s best-known sportsmen, told the basic court in Brcko on Thursday.

Peljto, who won his IBF cruiserweight world title after the war, in 2000, was charged alongside Redzep Salaj, another former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, who also pleaded not guilty.

They are both accused of physically abusing Serb civilians and detainees who were held at the former Majevica forest farm in Okrajci near Brcko in May and June 1992.

The Brcko district prosecution also accuses Salaj, along with two unidentified persons, of having physically and mentally abused a civilian in front of the ambulance service’s dispensary in Brcko, then driving him away to an unknown place and killing him.

Salaj was remanded in custody, while Peljto was given house arrest.

The start date for the trial will be set at a later stage.