Bosnia Convicts Ex-Policeman of Torturing Serb Prisoners

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court on Thursday sentenced Kahro Vejzovic, a policeman in the village of Stupari near Kladanj during wartime, to six years in prison for crimes against Serb civilians.

Vejzovic was found guilty of torturing captured Serb civilians in Stupari between June and September 1992 by hitting them all over their bodies.

The court was told during the trial that Vejzovic hit and kicked the prisoners in their heads and genitals using his fists, boots, baton and a rifle butt, put a pistol and a knife to their throats, threatened them and forced them to eat paper.

Presiding judge Milos Babic said that witnesses testified correctly about what happened to them and what they heard or saw.

“The chamber bore in mind that there were differences between [witnesses’] testimonies, but those differences did not bring into question their credibility in terms of decisive facts,” Babic said.

In August last year, Vejzovic was acquitted of 14 counts in the indictment.

But a retrial on seven of the counts was then held after the prosecution successfully appealed, while Vejzovic was acquitted on the seven other counts accusing him of abusing Serb men in Stupari.

Vejzovic originally stood trial together with Safet Mujcinovic, Selman Busnov, Nusret Muhic, Zijad Hamzic, Ramiz Halilovic, Nedzad Hodzic and Osman Gogic, all of whom were acquitted, under a first-instance verdict, of committing war crimes in the Kladanj area from May 1992 to July 1993.

However, after being on trial with the seven other defendants for two years, Vejzovic’s case was separated from the others due to his illness.

Thursday’s verdict can be appealed.