Bosnian Soldier’s Demand to Overturn Sentence Rejected

The court on Wednesday concluded that Mujcinovic’s defence did not prove there was new evidence that would merit the quashing of the final verdict convicting Mujcinovic and sentencing him to eight years in jail.

“All the issues the defence highlights were the subject of analysis by chambers of this court, in the first instance and appeals,” said judge Zoran Bozic in his decision.

“The facts brought forth are not new facts and evidence, nor can the contents of testimonies of certain witnesses in other cases before this court can be analysed by this chamber, especially for the purpose of quashing a final verdict,” he added.

Mujcinovic’s lawyer Nedzla Sehic filed a request in September asking for her client’s eight-year sentence be overturned because new evidence had emerged from another trial for war crimes in Srebrenik.

Sehic told BIRN that during the ongoing trial of three former Bosnian territorial defence fighters, Ekrem Ibracevic, Faruk Smajlovic and Sejdalija Covic, “new witnesses and facts came out” which show that her client is not guilty.

However, the Bosnian court found that “all the witnesses listed by the defence were already questioned in the case against Zurahid Mujcinovic, as defence witnesses, when they were obliged to list all their knowledge about the case”.

“The defence also had the chance to dispute the credibility of these witnesses, if there was a need to do so,” it said.

Mujcinovic, a former member of the Hunter’s Unit of the Bosnian Army in Srebrenik, was sentenced in 2013 to eight years in prison for taking part in the abuse of three Bosnian Serb civilians illegally detained at the Rapatnica Youth Hall near Srebrenik in 1992. He is currently serving his sentence.

Wednesday’s decision can be appealed.