Indictments Filed in Split for War Crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Three persons have been indicted in Split for war crimes committed during the Bosnia war, through cooperation between the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia.

The Bosnian state prosecution was unable to open criminal proceedings against the three suspects because they live in Croatia. The County Prosecutor’s Office in Split filed an indictment against them this year, but BIRN has been unable to confirm the identity of the suspects through official channels.

Available data suggest that Marinko Maric and Zeljko Rodin, former members of the Croatian Defense Council, have been indicted for the abuse of civilians in the Gabela, Silos and Dretelj detention camps in Herzegovina. The identity of the third defendant is still unknown.

The trial hasn’t begun yet, the County Prosecutor’s Office in Split told BIRN.

The Bosnian state prosecution indicted Maric with war crimes in 2006 and Rodin in 2012. Their trial has not begun due to their unavailability to Bosnian bodies, as well as the fact that Croatia does not extradite its citizens to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many war crime suspects have fled to Croatia in order to evade being criminally processed.

With the aim of bringing suspected perpetrators to justice, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the State Attorney’s Office of Croatia signed an agreement on mutual legal cooperation. A protocol signed by both bodies in the summer of 2013 describes how they will support each other in the processing of war crimes by exchanging evidence and other forms of assistance.

After the signing of the protocol, the Bosnian state prosecution announced that it was working on a large number of cases which couldn’t be processed, because the suspects were either residing in Croatia or had Croatian citizenship.

By the end of last year, the Bosnian state prosecution had provided Croatia’s state attorney with evidence against five persons. The Croatian state attorney’s office said evidence against two suspects is still being evaluated, and also said they couldn’t reveal the identity of the suspects at this stage.

The Bosnian state prosecution didn’t comment as whether it planned to submit more evidence against other individuals.

The two bodies could have cooperated earlier, on the basis of other regulations signed by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, but failed to do so. The chief prosecutors of the state-level prosecutor’s offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia said the protocol was more efficient in bringing those who had evaded justice through dual citizenship to court.

Apart from state level cooperation on the basis of this protocol, other prosecutor’s offices from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska have established cooperation with Croatian judicial bodies.

For example, last year the district prosecution of Doboj submitted evidence against ten persons who have been indicted since 2008 to their Croatian counterparts. The district prosecution of Doboj hasn’t responded to requests for information regarding the identity of the suspects, while the Croatian state attorney says that evidence is still being reviewed.

A trial dealing with war crimes committed in Velika Kladusa in 1994 is currently underway in Croatia, thanks to cooperation between judicial bodies not based on the protocol. This trial is being conducted against Cazim Behric, the former manager of Drmaljevo detention camp in Velika Kladusa.

The Una-Sana cantonal prosecution indicted Behric, but his trial could not be held at the Bihac Court because he was in Croatia. The evidence was then forwarded to Croatian investigative bodies. He was arrested in Rijeka last summer and his trial began two months ago.