Sentences for War Crimes on the Rise
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The longest sentence was handed down by the Bihac Cantonal Court in the Predrag Bajic case. Following an admission of guilt, Bajic, a former member of the Army of Republika Srpska, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the murder of seven civilians and the rape of two Bosniak women in Kljuc
The shortest imprisonment sentence was brought forth by the Basic Court of Brcko District. Under a first instance verdict, Nijaz Hodzic, a former member of the Croatian Defence Council, was sentenced to one year in prison for having abused Serb detainees in Gornji Rahic, in the municipality of Brcko.
The supreme courts of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska sentenced twelve persons to a total of 79 years in prison for war crimes.
Cantonal and district courts, as well as the Brcko District Court, sentenced 22 persons to a total of 115 years in prison.
Nineteen persons were acquitted of charges for war crimes. Ten of them were acquitted under second instance verdicts. One of them was the unusual case of Ramadan Dervisevic, who stood trial for war crimes before the District Court of Bijeljina.
The Cantonal Court in Bihac pronounced the most verdicts during the last year. Nine indictees were sentenced to a total of 67 and a half years in prison.
Prosecutions in Trebinje, Bijeljina, Brcko, Odzak, Sarajevo and Eastern Sarajevo accused the fewest persons.
Jasmin Mesic, a prosecutor from Bihac, said that the key to successful investigations is visiting witnesses and treating them properly.
“Practically, we are what people call ‘village prosecutors’, who visit villages and walk through the woods and up the hills … Everything is different when you observe the facts directly, when you are present in the field,” Mesic said.
After several years of not processing war crimes, the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office in Travnik filed six war crimes indictments against nine persons last year.
Edina Jaganjac, spokesperson of the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of Travnik said that last year they hired two prosecutors to deal with war crimes. So far, they’ve rendered four orders to discontinue investigations and two orders not to open investigations.
