Bosnia Awards Iraqi War Crimes Convict €36,600
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The state court on Wednesday awarded 71,500 Bosnian marks (36,600 euros) in compensation to Abduladhim Maktouf, an Iraqi volunteer fighter who was part of a Bosnian Army ‘mujahideen’ unit during the war.
“The court has awarded 71,500 marks, as well as the trial costs, to him,” his lawyer Adil Lozo told BIRN.
The court initially sentenced Maktouf to five years in prison for assisting members of the El Mujahid unit in the unlawful arrest and kidnapping of Croat civilians in Travnik in 1993.
But the European Court for Human Rights then ruled that the 2003 Bosnian criminal code was wrongly used at his trial instead of the more lenient criminal code of the former Yugoslavia, which was in force at the time that the crimes were committed.
Maktouf’s was one of several war crimes cases in which verdicts have been cancelled due to the incorrect application of the criminal code.
His five-year sentence was then quashed, and under a new verdict in 2014, his jail term was reduced to three years.
However, the new verdict was handed down after he had already served five years in prison.
Maktouf sued Bosnia and Herzegovina, asking for 283,160 Bosnian marks (145,000 euros) in compensation.
His lawyer said he had filed an appeal against Wednesday’s 36,600 euros compensation award because he said it was inadequate.
