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The Bosnian state prosecution employs more war crime prosecutors than it filed war crime indictments in 2018, shows an analysis carried out by BIRN.
During the course of the year, the state prosecution charged 73 people – twice as many as in 2017. They were indicted 22 separate cases.
Twenty-eight state prosecutors are dealing with the cases, but some of them failed to file a single indictment in 2018.
In a number of the cases, the trials are in question due to the unavailability of the defendants, as the prosecution continued its practice of filing indictments against people who live outside the country.
Considering ongoing deficiencies in regional cooperation with other ex-Yugoslav states over war crimes prosecutions, it is unclear when trials in those cases might begin. In some of the cases, the indictments have not been confirmed several months after they were filed.
In one case this year, eight ex-fighters were charged – Sladjan Tasic, Zoran Adamovic, Novak Stjepanovic, Slobodan Curcic, Sladjan Pajic, Goran Mojovic, Dusan Cimesa and Nenad Bubalo – but media reports suggested they are Serbian citizens residing in Belgrade or Montenegro, and that the indictments were sent to them by post.
The acting chief prosecutor at the Bosnian state prosecution, Gordana Tadic, told a BIRN conference in October that she wants to improve regional cooperation because some of the suspects being sought for prosecution in Bosnia and Herzegovina live outside the country.
“It is important for war crime perpetrators not to remain unpunished no matter where they are,” Tadic said.
Meanwhile some new trials have been delayed because of the defendants’ medical problems, like the trial of four people charged with wartime crimes in Vlasenica, which has not begun due to defendant Mane Djuric’s poor health.
Some proceedings are also deadlocked due to subsequent accusations in the cases.
This year, the Bosnian state court handed down 27 verdicts. Under first-instance verdicts, it sentenced 43 individuals to more than 340 years in prison, and acquitted people.
The number of people convicted and the length of the sentences were significantly higher than 2017, when 16 individuals were sentenced to 127-and-a-half years in prison.
The court’s appeals chamber handed down 23 verdicts. Twenty-three defendants were sentenced to a total of 171-and-a-half years in prison, while 17 were acquitted.
The highest penalty imposed this year was in the case against former Bosnian Serb Army soldiers and ‘Mice’ group fighters for a 1992 massacre of Bosniak civilians on Mount Borje, near Teslic.
Dragan Marjanovic, Sasa Gavranovic, Vitomir Devic and Zoran Sljuka were sentenced to 17 years each, while Dragomir Kezunovic got 15 years. An arrest warrant was issued for Kezunovic because he absconded.
