Bosniak Ex-Officer’s War Crimes Appeal Rejected

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday rejected Nihad Bojadzic’s appeal against verdicts under which he was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison for crimes committed in 1993 during the war in Jablanica and in the village of Trusina, near Konjic.

The Constitutional Court described Bojadzic’s appeal as “unfounded”.

Bojadzic, the former deputy commander of the Bosnian Army’s Zulfikar Squad, had argued that the facts were wrongly established by the courts, curtailing his right to a free trial.

But Tuesday’s verdict said that he had made his allegations that both courts were “composed of judges who should have been exempted” during his trials and that his claims had been properly dealt with at the time.

Bojadzic was convicted in 2015 of involvement in an attack on the village of Trusina near Konjic on April 16, 1993, when 15 Croat civilians and seven Croatian Defence Council fighters were killed and four injured.

Last year, he was also found guilty of committing rape in Jablanica in 1993, together with another Bosnian Army serviceman, and of the inhumane treatment, mistreatment and abuse of prisoners of war who were members of the Croatian Defence Council, the Bosnian Croat wartime force.

The court ruled that he should serve a combined sentence of 15 years for all the crimes.