Bosnian Serb Ex-Soldier Convicted of Sexual Enslavement
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Bosnian Serb Army ex-soldier Milan Todovic was sentenced to ten years in prison for raping and sexually enslaving a Bosniak woman who he held captive in an apartment in Foca in 1992 and 1993.
The Bosnian state court in Sarajevo on Tuesday found former Bosnian Serb Army soldier Milan Todovic guilty of raping a Bosniak woman in the town of Foca during wartime.
He then forced her into sexual slavery after ‘buying’ her from another soldier and taking her to an apartment in the town where he kept her captive, the court found.
The verdict said that Todovic held the woman in the apartment in inhumane conditions without food, water, electricity and heating, while mistreating her physically and sexually on a daily basis.
The woman, who testified as a protected witness in the trial under the codename S-1, managed to escape from the apartment with the help of three Serbs on March 5, 1993, the verdict added.
“On the basis of the evidence presented, the chamber has determined that the defendant forced injured party S-1 into sexual slavery and sexual intercourse in the period from December 1992 to March 1993 after having bought her from another soldier in [the Foca neighbourhood of] Cohodar Mahala… She confirmed that he beat and raped her often,” said presiding judge Lejla Konjic-Dragovic.
Konjic-Dragovic said that witnesses at the trial confirmed that Todovic sexually enslaved the woman and held her captive in the apartment after having ‘bought’ her in return for a television set.
The court ordered the defendant to pay his victim 13,100 Bosnian marks (about 6,670 euros) for the pain and fear she suffered, as well as for her reduced ability to live a normal life.
The verdict can be appealed.
