Indictment for Strpci Train Station Kidnapping and Killing Confirmed

Last month the Bosnian state prosecution charged Luka Dragicevic, Boban Indjic, Petko Indjic, Obrad Poluga, Novak Poluga, Dragan Sekaric, Oliver Krsmanovic, Radojica Ristic, Vuk Ratkovic, and Mico Jovicic with the kidnapping of 20 passengers on a train at the Strpci station in eastern Bosnia on February 27, 1993.
 
“Following the kidnapping, the victims were taken to a school building in Prelovo, near Visegrad, where they were tortured, abused and robbed. Afterwards, the victims, who had visible injuries, were transported to Musici, where they were killed. Their bodies were dumped into the Drina river,” a prosecution statement reads.
 
Most of the victims were Bosniak citizens from Serbia and Montenegro. One Croat and another person described as Arabic were also among them, the prosecution said.

The remains of four of the victims were found after the war, while the others are still unaccounted for.
 
The Bosnian state court could not confirm to BIRN that the indictment had been confirmed, even though the legal deadline of 15 days has passed.
 
Veljko Civsa, Novak Poluga’s defense attorney, said he hasn’t received any official information that the indictment has been confirmed. He did, however, say that a hearing was scheduled next week to discuss prohibitive measures against the suspects – which are part of the indictment – which means, as he explained, that the “indictment was probably confirmed.”
 
The ten suspects were arrested in December of last year, in a joint operation between Bosnian and Serbian prosecutions. They were later released with court-ordered prohibitive measures.
 
Five more suspects were arrested in Serbia and were indicted at the beginning of March.
 
The only person thus far convicted of the Strpci killings is Nebojsa Ranisavljevic, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a court in Montenegro.