Eso Macic Sentence Reduced by State Court

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court reduced Eso Macic’s sentence from 13 to 11 years in prison. Macic was found guilty of committing war crimes against civilians in the municipality of Konjic.

The case was a granted a retrial when the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina revoked a second instance verdict which sentenced Macic to thirteen years in prison. The constitutional court decided that the criminal code of the former Yugoslavia, which provides more favourable sentences to perpetrators, should have been applied in his case, and not the criminal code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As a result, the Bosnian state court ordered a retrial in order to discuss the duration of Macic’s sentence and the application of the law, while the rest of the sentence from 2013 remains unchanged.

Macic, a former member of the Bosnian Army, was found guilty of crimes against the Serb population in the Celebici detention camp in the municipality of Konjic. He was also found guilty of murdering Milorad Kuljanin, participating in the beating of Scepo Gotovac (who died afterwards), and participating in three other instances of prisoner abuse.

Macic was acquitted of charges contained in two counts.

Under the conditions of the new verdict, Macic’s time in custody and time spent serving the second instance verdict of the state court will be taken into account.

This verdict cannot be appealed.