Bosnian Croat Fighter Jailed for Killing Detainees

The Bosnian state court on Tuesday handed down a seven-year sentence to Lipovac, a former member of the 103rd Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council in Derventa and the commander of a detention centre in a school in Poljari, after he admitted his guilt and struck a plea bargain.

Lipovac admitted killing two Serb detainees in June 1992.

“He entered the detention camp and took [a prisoner called] Boris Stjepanovic out. He killed him by shooting him with an automatic rifle. He then took all other detainees out of the camp and, pointing to the killed man, he said it was a warning to them,” said presiding judge Davorin Jukic.

Lipovac also beat up and then shot dead another detainee called Boro Markovic, judge Jukic said.

The court ruled that in June 1992, Lipovac inhumanely treated civilians who were being held in the detention centre in Poljari. He beat them with rifle butts and other objects, burned their skin with cigarettes and hot wire and forced them to sing Croatian nationalist songs.

“Lipovac also robbed detainees. He put a blanket in the centre of the room. They had to put all their money and other valuable possessions on it,” the judge said.

The court said that Lipovac had signed the guilt admission agreement voluntarily. By doing so, he gave up the right to stand trial or file an appeal.

The judge said he considered the seven-year sentence proportionate to gravity of the crime.

“The court has also considered some mitigating circumstances, including the fact that the defendant has fully admitted guilt and expressed sincere remorse, as well as the fact that he was young when he committed the crime. He was 22 actually,” Jukic said.

The time Lipovac has already spent in custody, from his arrest in the Netherlands in May 2014 onwards, will be calculated towards his sentence. He was extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina in November 2015.