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Former Croatian Defence Council fighter Nikola Maric was convicted of crimes against humanity for the killings, persecution and torture of Bosniaks in the Prozor area in 1992 and 1993.
The Bosnian state court on Friday found Maric guilty on all 25 counts in the indictment, convicting him of killings, forcible resettlement, arrests, unlawful detention, torture and other inhumane acts against Bosniaks from November 1992 to October 1993.
“There is no doubt that Nikola Maric knew about a widespread and systematic attack aimed at the Bosniak civilian population and that he wanted his actions to be part of that attack,” said presiding judge Mediha Pasic.
Maric was found guilty of committing seven murders at a secondary school in Prozor and in the nearby villages of Tolovac and Prajm, as well as ordering the murder of an elderly, mentally-ill man.
He was also found guilty of being responsible for the disappearance of six people from the secondary school in Prozor, whose bodies have still not been found.
As well as the murders and forced disappearances, the court found that Maric participated in the torture of several Bosniaks, including a man called Hamdo Bevab and his son.
“He pulled Hamdo’s nails out using a special type of pliers. He then played Russian roulette with Hamdo and his son,” the verdict said.
Maric was also found guilty of unlawful arrests in the villages of Duge, Varvare, Gornji and Donji Visnjani, Skrobucani, Gorica and Lug, as well as the detention of men in camps in Prozor.
He was convicted of having beaten prisoners held at the detention camps and at locations where they were sent to do forced labour.
According to the verdict, Maric participated in the persecution of several hundred Bosniaks from the Prozor municipality.
“When deciding on the sentence, the chamber considered the defendant’s specific model of behaviour, his unusual unscrupulousness, brutality and persistence in the commission of crimes as aggravating circumstances,” Pasic said.
She said the court took into account the fact that Maric has a family as a mitigating circumstance.
The verdict can be appealed.
