Indictment for Buzim War Crimes Confirmed

The Bosnian state court has confirmed an indictment against Zijad Nanic, Esad Kudelic, Vahid Bajraktarevic, Senad Salkic, Hasan Mustafic, Mehmed Alesevic, Nedzad Bapic, Husein and Samir Isakovic. The defendants have been charged with war crimes in Buzim.

According to the state prosecution’s charges, the defendants treated civilians and prisoners of war detained in the Radoc Hotel in Buzim in an inhumane manner from November 1994-August 1995.

The indictment alleges that Nanic was the assistant commander for security with the 505th Buzimska Brigade of the 5th Corps of the Bosnian Army. Kudelic was the commander of the Military Police Squad. Bajraktarevic, Salkic, Mustafic, Bapic and Isakovic were military police officers. Alesevic was a clerical officer with the Military Police Squad of the 505th Buzimska Brigade.

They have been charged with committing crimes against members of the Bosnian Serb Army and the National Defense of the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region.

An announcement released by the state prosecution emphasizes the inhumane conditions in which prisoners at the Radoc Hotel were kept.

“Every day the defendants took them out to the yard and beat them, threw concrete blocks at them and forced them to self-injure themselves and sexually abuse each other,” reads an announcement issued by the state prosecution on September 21, 2015.

The defendants have been charged with taking eight former members of the Bosnian Serb Army away from the hotel and killing them. The indictment also alleges that the defendants beat three civilians and one former member of the National Defense of the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region to death.

Husein Isakovic is charged with war crimes against civilians.

The defendants are expected to enter their pleas in the upcoming period.