Petrovic Found Guilty, Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison

Petrovic, a former member of the Croatian Defense Council, was found guilty of arresting, abusing and murdering civilian Nikola Magazin. Petrovic and other soldiers physically abused Magazin and took him to the Sudareva Cave, where they killed him. Magazin’s body was exhumed in May 2006.

Presiding judge Slavko Pavlovic said witness testimony demonstrated that Petrovic subjected the victim to inhumane treatment and murdered him, thereby committing a war crime against the civilian population.

“The court considers that conditions were met for crimes against the civilian population, because we established that the murder victim Nikola Magazin was a civilian and that the defendant was a soldier,” Pavlovic said. He said that Petrovic’s ethnic slurs and kicking of the victim were independent actions.

Pavlovic said the trial chamber took mitigating circumstances into account during its deliberation of the sentence, such as the fact that Petrovic is a family man with a young child, his difficult financial situation and his lack of a criminal record.

The time Petrovic spent in custody was also taken into account while deliberating the sentence. Petrovic was in custody since February 28, 2015, and had his custody extended.

The verdict can be appealed at the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.